The seasonal crackdown on drink-driving is underway, but fleets face leaving themselves exposed if company car and van drivers do not understand the risks of being over the limit the morning after.

Drink-drive accidents in the UK are falling, but the proportion of morning-after drink-drive accidents has reached an all-time high.

Analysis of the latest drink-drive statistics reveals that in the past decade there has been almost a 60% increase in the proportion of morning after drink-drive accidents.

The figures show 18.2% of all accidents caused by drink-driving in 2010 occurred between 5am and 1pm, compared with only 11.4% in 2000 and 6.9% in 1990.

The proportion of drink-drive accidents occurring in the afternoon and evenings have fallen by just over 10% over the past two decades.

However, the proportion of morning-after accidents has been steadily rising, suggesting the problem is merely being shifted forward to the next day.

Further analysis by AlcoSense shows a sharp increase in the morning after accident rate since 2005, when licensing laws were relaxed to allow pubs and bars to stay open later.

In the early 2000s, morning-after drink-driving accidents seemed to have stabilised with around 11% of all drink-drive accidents occurring the morning after.

After the new licensing laws were passed in 2003 it started to rise, jumping to 15.2% in the first full year of the more relaxed regime.

In contrast, drink-drive accidents occurring the same evening –between the hours of 7pm to 4am – have decreased from 58% to 47.5% since 1990.

AlcoSense managing director Hunter Abbott believes the Department for Transport (DfT) Think! campaign has educated people about the risks of drink-driving and it is now perceived as unacceptable to drink-drive the same evening.

“However, people still believe that a few hours’ sleep will get rid of all of the alcohol in their system, but it is easy to still be over the limit the morning after,” Abbott explained.

“For example, if you drank four pints of medium strong beer or four large glasses of wine between 9pm and midnight, it could take as long as 14.8 hours for the alcohol to leave your system. Therefore you could easily still be over the limit at 11am the following day.”

In 2010, 250 deaths and 1,230 serious injuries were caused by drink-driving in the UK.

Meanwhile, the percentage of drivers found to be over the limit in police breath-tests carried out during the summer drink-drive campaign rose compared to the same period last year.

Statistics released by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) show that of 88,629 people breath tested in June, 6.1% refused or failed a breath test, compared to 5.6% the previous year. In addition, offences by young driver increased by 15% from last year.

Richard Coteau, from the road safety charity Brake, said: “We were shocked by the increase in morning after drink-driving, which is now a serious problem.”

Educating drivers about the risks of morning after drink-driving is crucial to fleets making sure their employees avoid falling foul of the law. The simplest advice being, don’t drink at all the night before if you’re driving the morning after.

The DfT launched its Think! Christmas drink-drive campaign this week.

Road safety minister Mike Penning said: “Our Think! campaign makes it clear that drivers who get behind the wheel over the limit risk losing their licence as well as facing a fine and even a prison sentence.”

For advice on writing a drink and drug policy into your fleet handbook, click here.