New advice to combat drink and drug driving

The number of collisions attributed to drug driving, for example, has increased by 170% in less than a decade, while drug-driving crashes rose from 684 in 2014 to 1,853 in 2023, with fatalities linked to drug driving increasing by 164% over the same period, from 47 in 2014 to 124 in 2023.

Written by the AFP’s Risk, Compliance and Health Committee, the guidance covers the need for a drug and drink driving policy, what its contents should include, rules for grey fleet drivers and the importance of recognising that prescription and over-the-counter drugs, as well as illegal ones, can be an issue behind the wheel.

Committee chair, Martin Evans, said: “This is something of a grim time for drug and drink driving. Recent DfT figures show the number of collisions linked to drug driving have risen by 170% in less than a decade, while drink driving deaths are at their highest level for 14 years.

“Although anecdotal reports of persistent problems of this kind among company car and van drivers within the AFP are thankfully low, fleets are not immune to these trends and that’s why we have created the new document.”

The AFP Drugs and Alcohol Guidance document is available to the organisation’s members from the members’ area of its resources portal.
 

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