‘Morning After’ Drink Drive Warning to Football Fans

With pubs across England and Wales staying open until 1am on Wednesday night, football fans are being warned not to drive on Thursday morning if they’ve been celebrating a win (or drowning their sorrows).

Data shows that drinks sales in licensed premises were up 6% during the week to 29 June, following a 9% surge the previous week.

Sales peaked during England’s last group stage game on 25 June, with 71% more alcohol drunk compared with the same day in 2023.  Consumption is expected to be even higher on semi-final day, with ‘session’ drinks such as beer and cider showing the highest growth.

“If you drink four pints of average strength beer (4% ABV) up until closing time, you won’t be clear of alcohol until about 11am,” warns Hunter Abbott, MD of personal breathalyser firm AlcoSense.

“For stronger beers, it takes even longer. 

“Just a small amount of alcohol in your system slows your reaction time, inhibits judgement and reduces both concentration and co-ordination – increasing the likelihood of an accident”.

In a poll conducted by AlcoSense, over a third of us (36%) think our ability to drive is only impaired if we are actually over the legal drink drive limit.

But you are 13 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash at the English limit, research shows.

Even with 10mg per 100mL of alcohol in your blood (one eighth of the limit in England and Wales) it is 37% more likely than when completely sober.

Government figures show that during 2021, there were 740 reported drink-drive collisions during the ‘morning after’ period of 5am to 1pm. This represents 16% of all drink drive collisions that year.

“Please don’t drive your kids to school or commute to work on Thursday morning if you’ve consumed alcohol watching the game, or use a personal breathalyser to check you’re clear,” adds Hunter Abbott.

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