When did drink driving become socially unacceptable?

[Globetrote]

Like the title says - when in the UK did it become unacceptable from a moral and social viewpoint? I see online that the first law with alcohol legal limits was introduced in 1967, but the first public campaign was earlier in 1964 and aimed at housewives to pressurise their husbands not to drink drive.

The reason I ask is this - I was born in another country with similar timeframes for drink driving laws/campaign, but my father regularly drove drunk. I remember it clearly in the 1980s when I was a child being petrified, car often swerving across lanes and he nearly passed out at the wheel, but he never got caught until about 20 years ago when he lost his license for 6 months (again, not in the UK/EU). He thought the it was hilarious to have to get the bus for 6 months, and had no shame.

I was talking to a friend and she said ‘oh everyone was drunk driving in the 80’s, you shouldn’t be bothered about it as it wasn’t just you.’

I knew what he was doing was wrong, I remember the public campaigns in my country, and I hear that they had similar here in England. Did people just not give a shit back then? When did attitudes start to change?

My father and I are NC now for many reasons, but it makes me angry how he played roulette with my life and that of others on the road and has no conscience about it - and then my friend just discounted my feelings about it like it was all nonsense and no big deal.

(parents were divorced and DM never knew until years later).

Like others have said, my friends and I (early 40s) would never have considered doing it - so for us it had changed by the time we started driving in the late 90s at least. My parents generation on the other hand still did it at that time. One of the reasons I've never drunk when out with my parents (at family parties and the like) is that from the day I passed my test I've always driven home because even if they were the designated driver i couldn't trust them not to drink. I too remember being scared when younger being driven home by them (though I don't think they'd drink as much as it sounds like your Dad did). I'm sorry you had that experience.

I will not even drive after 1 drink. If it’s a wedding or similar where there will be toasts I may have an inch of champagne if I am also having a meal and not driving for several hours but I can’t see why you’d take the chance of even one drink. I can remember feeling very anxious as a small child in the 80s being in the car driven by a clearly tipsy even to a little kid relative and I just don’t understand how that can possibly be an acceptable risk.

I have much older siblings who passed their tests in the early 90s. All were breathalysed at least once in the years following. Conversely I passed about 10 years later and I've never been breathalysed. I wonder if there was a bit of a push around the 90s which stopped some point (due to lack of funding). Where I live now which I would describe as semi rural, I would be surprised to be stopped and breathalysed.

Most people I know in their 20s and 30s who drink would happily have two drinks at a pub over the afternoon (maybe 1-5pm), usually alongside food but no more. I know a lot of people who don't really drink as well.

It was never an issue with my parents. My father didn't drive until later in life, my mum has never been much of a drinker.

All the nightclubs were/are situated out of town and I remember the news reports used to refer to “the slaughter of Saturday evening” when they gave the rundown of how many teenagers were killed on the roads every week.

You metabolise alcohol slower as you get older

Shocked at the PP assuming it's acceptable/more likely to drink drive here Up North🤨

In certain countries of Southern Europe it's still very common. I have been in bars and watched locals stagger outside and get on a Scooter/Motorbike/Car and drive away.

Many of the roads have little Memory candles in boxes with Icons (no idea what you would call them 🤔 showing where a fatal incident occurred.

Not saying they were all caused by drink though, but probably a fair few..

I think it was a transition with younger people stopping first and paying attention to campaigns etc.

It took longer for older people who were already in the habit and didn't see anything wrong with it.

One of my older relatives would still drive drunk if we didn't stop him, he doesn't see anything wrong with it because it's what he always used to do. Very worrying!

I'm 51 and it's always been unacceptable to drink and drive, I passed my test in 1990. But I do remember my Grandad driving home on a Saturday after spending the afternoon in the pub, visibly drunk when he got home. My Dad has also told me stories of him riding his motorbike home after drinking, this was probably the early 1970s

Thank you. That's interesting.

I went to France in 1997 and drink driving was totally rife there. Same in Belgium in the early oughties. I was shocked because it was already unacceptable where I lived in the UK by the nineties. I'm sure some people still did it, but friends would try to stop them, etc. whereas in France and Belgium people would still take lifts from people who were 'only a bit merry'. This has changed now in Belgium.

On the continent it was seen as a young person problem, but back home an older person's one as the younger generation had grown up with the idea of getting a taxi or a lift with a sober friend.

Not true. Kids could be in a pub, but not approach the bar under 14. Some pubs served food at lunchtime even in the 80s. Those ones were the only ones where you could get a hot drink.

I am in my fifties and I never drove drunk after a night out.

I did however frequently drive to work after a skinful and a few hours sleep. I didn't consider still being over the limit and saw most of my friends doing the same!

There was a humongous public information campaign in the 1980s on TV, cinemas, radio. Stories in soap operas etc.

We only had 4 TV channels so saturation was incredibly high.

Within a year or so it was regarded as socially unacceptable.

It’s still prevalent in very rural places in all regions of England and Wales, sadly.

Country pubs that can’t be accessed by walking are a big problem (a ten minute drive can easily be an hour walk and not usually a pavement or pathway).

Many of these have pivoted to being restaurants but those pubs whose main offering is still alcohol are definitely part of the problem. It’s tricky as they’re often key community places but something needs to change. Maybe they can lay on a pub bus that picks everyone up and takes everyone home again!

I live in rural East Anglia and I would guess that every pub has 2 or 3 regular drinkers that drive. Older men usually, but the odd younger one in a pick up truck.

I agree with the PP about drug drivers being quite prevalent. It gas never occurred to me to report for some reason. This thread has inspired me to take the number plate of the next Fiesta that goes past in a fug of weed!

There is a big lifestyle divide here. I learned to drive in the late 90s and it has always been totally unacceptable to drink drive or drug drive to me.

I learnt to drive in the 1990s and it was totally unacceptable then amongst my generation. Our parents, however... I have never driven after having even one small drink on the same day!

I think the divide now is between about under-50s and over-50s. Parents' generation, now 70s and 80s are still doing it but it's even worse with the cognitive impairments that come with age. My DM was furious with me earlier this year after I refused to drive her somewhere as I'd had a drink!

It was when breathalysers came in coupled with automatic disqualification for drink driving. Before that it was common to press people to have "one for the road" and difficult to say no; but people gradually came to realise that the penalties were serious and giving your friends one for the road wasn't doing them or other drivers any favours.

It became unacceptable when accurate breathalysers were introduced.

I think it depends on what you mean by drink driving.

I passed my test in the early 90's and I have never been behind the wheel under the influence. If I was driving then I wouldn't have any alcohol. But that was seen as unusual. Would often be told "ach one won't hurt" "you are under the limit with a couple" or "have one now and you will be ok to drive in an hour or so"

Same with being aware of the issues driving the next day. I was an outlier in that if I was drinking the night before I wouldn't drive the next day. I think that's only a relatively recent thing people being much more aware of potentially being over the limit the next day.

So while people were moderating their consumption of alcohol to a few to stay under the limit, it wasn't seen as socially unacceptable unless obviously drunk.

I'm in Scotland and there was still people moaning when the new lower limits were introduced, and that was 2014.

So from my obersevations, being visibly drunk and driving has been socially unacceptable since late 80's/early 90's. Having a couple of drinks and driving was much more socially acceptable and didn't really change here until the limits were lowered to mean basically you were over the limit with 1.

I remember as a kid in the early 90s adults would say 'I'll just have one as I'm driving' but now I think it's more normal to just abstain unless you're there for a long time and the drink will be early. Saying that, wine measures did get significantly bigger! Adults seemed to become more aware in the 90s. I remember occasions when there were comments of '...shouldn't really be driving, should he?' These were middle aged adults not teens! People wouldn't arrange taxis or lifts. They would just plan to drink less which didn't always work out well. Some of my parents friends were irresponsible but I would say getting behind the wheel obviously drunk wasn't happening.

In recent years I've not been in a position where I've thought someone had had too much who was planning to drive. Glad things have changed.

Looking at the stats, figures began to fall steadily in the mid 80s. There was an increase in the late 90s, then they fell again.

They've been creeping up over the last few years though.

My dad didn't drink and drive in the 70s and 80s but I can remember him telling many stories about him and his friends being drunk and driving around in his ford Anglia in the 60s. He would never have done it with my mum or us in the car anyway but he wasn't a big drinker by then.

In my 40s and would never do it. I remember being in my early 20s and people going to the pub at lunch on a Friday then driving home after work. That stopped by my late 20s.

Most people I know don't have a single drive if they are driving, apart from a few over 60s who'll drink after a glass of wine or two.

I think the turning point was that campaign using "in the summer time" music, it still makes me think of it when I hear the tune. My generation always have known not to drink and drive, it's a small wine or pint of shandy max and only then if you aren't immediately driving. Younger than me are even stricter with themselves. I've confiscated keys off people I know who were going to drink and drive and dropped them home!

As a child I remember adults 'having a few pints' in the 80's. And apparently if you got caught it was often just having a word and letting you go, often even drive, home.

This behaviour from my recollection seemed to stop as we got into the 90's.