Reported road casualties in Great Britain: Estimates for accidents involving illegal alcohol levels: 2015 (second provisional)

While the number of drink drive related fatalities in 2015 looks set to remain unchanged from the previous four years, there appears to be a ‘statistically significant’ increase in the number of killed and seriously injured casualties.

Provisional estimates for 2015 show that between 180 and 250 people were killed in collisions in Great Britain where at least one driver was over the drink drive-limit, with a central estimate of 220 deaths.

The figure is slightly down on the final figures for 2014, when the upper estimate was 260, central estimate 240 and lower estimate 220.

However, the DfT says due to the uncertainty in the estimates, fatalities should be regarded as having remained unchanged since 2010.

Around 13% of all road deaths in 2015 were drink drive related, again unchanged from a year earlier.

However, the provisional stats do show a statistically significant rise in the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI). In 2015, there were 1,380 KSIs, up from 1,310 in 2014.

The DfT says there is still ‘considerable uncertainty’ about this figure, but if it proves to be correct when the final estimates are released in August 2017, it will be the first rise in drink-drive KSIs since 2010.

There was also a rise in the total number of collisions where at least one driver was over the alcohol limit – up 2% to 5,740 in 2015.