PC Martin Hudd: Drink drivers think it won't happen to them

It never ceases to amaze me that despite numerous warnings, advertising campaigns and other media and police attention there are some people out there who walk around with the "it will never happen to me" attitude.

Take my late shift last Saturday, myself and my police community support colleagues were in plain clothes in an unmarked police vehicle, parked observing a known sex worker plying for trade. 

The idea being that once a vehicle approached and the female got into the vehicle we would follow it and arrest the driver for kerb crawling.

As we were observing the female, from out of nowhere a young male started walking towards a vehicle which was parked and unattended next to us. 

Wearing his Saturday night clubbing gear and being slightly unsteady on his feet, he proceeded to find the nearest tree to urinate against and then fumbled about in his pocket, moments later proceeding to pull out a set of car keys and enter the vehicle next to us. 

I and my colleagues stared at each other in disbelief. Surely he wasn't intending to drive, he appeared to have enough trouble walking.

Sure enough moments later the engine started and, despite stalling the vehicle twice, he began to make his way towards the M32 motorway with us hot on his heels. A marked police vehicle was summoned to the area and seconds later the male had provided a positive sample of breath and was arrested.

At the station a further breath test showed the male to be three times over the legal drink drive limit, and he quickly began to realise the trouble he was in and was enquiring about the punishment he could expect to receive, which is a statutory minimum 12-month driving ban and a substantial fine.

The male had made a conscious decision to drive even though he had booked a hotel room in Bristol having been out with friends, and once he had made the decision to drive home, he had decided to drink pints instead of shorts thinking this would reduce the effect alcohol would have on his driving ability. 

And the most incredible thing was that he intended to drive home to Exeter because he wanted to play football later that morning.

Every year we read about innocent people killed and families left devastated by drink-drivers, and yet people still take the chance thinking it will never happen to them.

As Christmas approaches we will no doubt see the stepping up of police checks in an attempt to deter this type of criminal, and I know that traffic officers rigorously enforce this throughout the year but if my Saturday shift was anything to go by then maybe the authorities need to look at a different approach or a stiffening of the sentences.

And if the state my offender was in doesn't convince you, then what if I tell you that to my knowledge as well as my offender there were three other people arrested that night for the same offence.