Drink-drive figures 'consistent'

Efforts to persuade motorists not to drink and drive appear to be failing.

Last year, 6% of drivers admitted to driving after having an alcoholic drink, with 6% owning up to driving in the morning after drinking the night before.

A 2012 survey by Sainsbury's Car Insurance has shown that these figures have not changed. Also unchanged - at 18% - is the number of people who continue driving when feeling tired.

However, the driver-behaviour survey did show that the number of people admitting to exceeding the speed limit by at least 10mph had fallen from 19% in 2011 to 17% in 2012.

Also, while 6% admitted using hand-held phones at the wheel in last year's survey, only 5% owned up to this offence this year.

But the number of drivers who texted at the wheel had risen from 4% in 2011 to 5% in 2012. Those driving in inappropriate footwear, such as flip-flops, remained constant at 12%.

Some 3% admitted driving without a seatbelt in the 2012 survey, compared with 5% in 2011, while those admitting tailgating had fallen from 5% last year to 4% this year.

Eating and drinking at the wheel appeared the most common bad driving habit, with 27% admitting to it.

As many as 3% of women said they did their make-up while driving, while 2% opened up to driving without their glasses or contact lenses.

Sainsbury's Car Insurance head Ben Tyte said: "It's encouraging to see that driver behaviour on our roads remains, on the whole, at a consistent level and is improving in some areas. We're pleased to see a reduction in excessive speeding, as this is the cause of so many accidents on our roads."