How much alcohol can one drink and drive?

Don’t drink and drive! - rings a slogan in your head. Indeed, you should always abstain from alcohol if you are planning to sit behind the steering wheel.

It needs to be stated clearly that there is no such thing as a safe level of alcohol in your system if you are planning to drive. Each year, hundreds of car accidents in UK are caused by drink driving. Even the smallest amount can impair your vision and ability to react to the situation on the road. There is no fool-proof way to predict how a given amount of alcohol is going to affect you as a number of factors is involved, e.g. your weight, sex, metabolism or stress level.

While it’s always a good idea to call a taxi instead of driving after having a drink, UK law allows a certain amount of alcohol in your system:

	Micrograms per 100 ml of BREATH	Milligrams per 100 ml of BLOOD	Milligrams per 100ml of URINE
England, Wales, Northern Ireland	35	80	107
Scotland	22	50	67

If you are unsure if you are already good to go, you may want to have a breath test. Alcohol test can be purchased in pharmacies, supermarkets or even pound shops. Still, always make sure to plan the alternative way to get back home from a party (which involved drinking alcoholic beverages, of course). You can write down a couple of taxi numbers beforehand or arrange with your friends that each time you go out, one person will not drink alcohol and drive the rest back home afterwards.

Did you know?

When traveling, remember that the majority of European countries have stricter drink driving policies. Only Malta has the same alcohol limits as England. What’s more, different regulations may apply to commercial and novice drivers!

Milligrams per 100ml of BLOOD (for standard drivers)	European countries
0	Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia
20	Cyprus, Estonia, Poland, Sweden
40	Lithuania
50	Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland
80	Malta, UK (apart from Scotland)