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Anti-drink-drive blitz officers arrest 18 in first week of crackdown in Leicestershire

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Eighteen drivers have been arrested for being over the alcohol limit in the first week of a month-long Christmas drink-drive crackdown.

They were arrested by officers as part of the Over the Limit campaign, launched on December 1.

A three-day operation was also held this week targeting lorry drivers on the M1 in Leicestershire and A1 in Rutland. None of the 90 people stopped for offences were found to be over the drink-drive limit.

Graham Compton, senior road traffic management officer for Leicestershire Police, said the results of the lorry driver operation were encouraging on the drink-drive front.

He said: "We stopped 90 drivers for a number of offences, including not wearing seatbelts, using hand-held mobile phones and tachograph infringements.

"Each one of them was breath- tested and I am pleased to say they were all negative."

He said 52 were given fixed £60 penalties with three points on their licences for not wearing seatbelts.

Twenty-one were given similar penalties for using hand-held mobile phones, six for not being in proper control of their vehicles and 11 for tachograph offences.

However, Mr Compton said despite the tests on the lorry drivers proving negative, some people were not heeding the warnings and were still taking risks.

He said: "If you find you've had a drink, get a taxi or a lift home from a friend who has not consumed alcohol.

"Don't drink and drive. Alcohol seriously impairs your reaction speed."

A police spokesman said that among the drivers arrested this week was a driver who was found asleep in his vehicle as it teetered over the edge of a canal. The vehicle was pulled to safety and the driver was detained after he provided a positive sample of breath.

Officers also tested a driver who they traced after he had left the scene of an accident on the A5 in Hinckley. His reading was positive and he was arrested.

The penalties for drinking and driving are a minimum 12-month disqualification – which rises to three years for a second offence within 10 years – a fine of up to £5,000 and up to six months in prison.

Police said this week's figure of 18 compared with 21 in the same period last year.

During last December's operation, police caught 119 over-the-limit drivers – a slight improvement on the 2010 total of 127 and 2009's 122.

Anti-drink-drive blitz officers arrest 18 in first week of crackdown in Leicestershire


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