Drink-Drive Deaths: 25% Increase In 2012

 A crashed car
A total of 290 people were killed in drink-drive accidents last year - a quarter up on the previous 12 months.
Revealed by the Department for Transport (DfT), the estimated figure compared to 230 in 2011.
The 2012 figure - which represented 17% of all road fatalities - was made worse by the fact that the 2011 total was the lowest since records began in 1979.
There were 250 drink-drive accidents that resulted in deaths in 2012, compared with 220 in 2011.
Overall, the number of accidents involving drink-driving last year was 6,680 - fractionally down on the 2011 figure of 6,690.
And the number of people seriously injured in drink-drive accidents also went down, from 1,270 in 2011 to 1,210 in 2012.
Minor injuries in drink-drive accidents totalled 8,500 last year - slightly up on the 8,420 figure in 2011.
Among those killed in drink-drive accidents, most (68%) were drivers and riders over the legal alcohol limit.
The remaining 32% were other road users, involved in the accident but not necessarily over the legal limit themselves.
Although the death toll from last year rose significantly, the annual fatality figure has come down considerably since the late 1970s and 1980s when figures of more than 1,400 deaths a year were recorded.
The annual death figure hovered around the 530 to 580 mark in the first years of the 21st century before dipping sharply over the period 2007 to 2011.
Local Transport  Minister Norman Baker said: "Road deaths are thankfully at their lowest since records began in 1926 and the number of drink-drive related deaths has declined overall with 25% in 2012 than in 2009.
"These latest figures are provisional, but any road death is one too many and we are absolutely not complacent when it comes to road safety.
"That is why we are taking forward a package of measures to streamline enforcement against drink-driving, including approving portable evidential breath-testing equipment which will allow for more effective and efficient enforcement."