Twenty people were arrested in the Fareham and Gosport area for drink-driving during the Hampshire Police Christmas Smashed campaign – but county-wide drink drive arrests were down 15 per cent on last year.
A total of 5,811 drivers across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight were breath tested during the campaign, which ran from December 1, 2011 to January 1 – an increase of four per cent on Christmas 2011
Of this, 205 people gave a positive reading and were arrested and of those 12 per cent were at least three times over the drink-drive limit.
The Eastern area, which includes the Western Wards, had the highest number of arrests with 75. Twenty of these were in the Fareham and Gosport areas.
Northern Hampshire had the second highest with 69.
Police have since charged 140 people with drink-drive offences, bailed 51 people pending further enquiries and released 14 with no further action.
Chief Inspector Andy Bottomley of Roads Policing for Hampshire Constabulary and Thames Valley Police, said: “I am obviously very pleased with the results which do suggest a reduction in drink-driving offences across the two counties during the campaign.
“It is important to point out that while we carry out drink-drive operations throughout the year, we see a spike in this type of offending in the weeks leading up to and just after Christmas.”
Operations were carried out every Friday and Saturday night and Sunday and Monday morning as well as usual roadside checks. The force and its Safer Neighbourhoods teams spread drink-drive messages with the help of bumper stickers, beer mats in pubs and by touring with a crashed car which just one year ago had been involved in a drink-drive fatality.
This year saw a 44 per cent increase in female drivers arrested (up from 43 to 62), whereas male driver arrests fell 27 per cent from 197 to 143.
The failure rate for male drivers was 3.2 per cent whereas for females it was higher at 4.4 per cent
The youngest person arrested was just 17 years old while the oldest was 81.
Out of everyone breath-tested during the campaign, 30 per cent were as a result of a road traffic collision. Out of the 1,726 persons tested after collisions 5.6 per cent failed the test.