Perceptions of drink driving legal limits in England: a qualitative investigation

ABSTRACT

There are strict laws relating to alcohol intake and driving; however, while most people are aware of these laws, drink driving still occurs. The current research provides an in-depth account of individuals’ awareness and attitudes towards current drink driving limits and laws in England. Individuals (N = 83) were interviewed, and their responses recorded for thematic analysis. Results indicated major themes of: attitudes towards drink driving laws, limits, and effectiveness; reasons for drink driving; and post-drink driving reflections. Outcomes show that most individuals are aware there are strict laws, but are unaware of the exact limits, and do not understand how to convert legal limits into actual drinking behaviours. Sub-themes emerged indicating that individuals held heuristic beliefs about being able to consume one or two alcohol beverages without negative effects on their driving ability. Conclusions from this research indicate that views are mostly invariant across key population demographics; peer pressure was the only sub-theme that appeared to differ between younger and older individuals. The findings have implications for policy makers and future interventions in terms of clarifying drink driving limits and translating this into drinking behaviour. There was also some support for stricter laws and regulations.

KEYWORDS:

• Drink driving
• alcohol
• thematic
• driving under the influence
• law

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 While this is a large sample for a qualitative design, owing to the importance of the research and the opportunities in the testing phase, all of the participants who signed-up to the study were kept in the final report. Data saturation occurred much earlier in the analyses (around 40 participants); but, for the sake of completion, we retained data from all participants in the anlysis.

2 Driving penalty points are given in England for motoring offenses

3 The finalised schedule is available from the corresponding author, on request.

4 Additional quotations and theme diagrams are available from the corresponding author, on request.

5 Note, the coding for particpants is: gender, age, and a letter to indicate different participants. For example, Female, 19a is a 19 year old female, who is not the same participant as Female 19b, and so on.