Highland is among the country\u2019s worst areas for drink and drug driving, \u201ctroubling\u201d new figures have revealed.<\/p>\n
New statistics from Police Scotland have ranked Highland as the third-worst council area in Scotland for driving under the influence offences, per head of population.<\/p>\n
The rate of drink driving in the Highland Council area was nearly twice the national average…Picture: Canva<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s rate of 27.7 recorded offences per 10,000 people was nearly twice the national average.<\/p>\n
And, for the first time, the number of drug driving offences was higher than the drink driving total.<\/p>\n
But this figure actually marks a small improvement for Highland compared to the year before, which saw the region rank as the country\u2019s worst hotspot for drink and drug driving.<\/p>\n
Highland has been in the top three areas for the offences in nine of the last ten years, and also topped the rankings in 2019.<\/p>\n
Douglas Ross, MSP for the Highlands and Islands, said the figures were \u201ctroubling\u201d and took aim at those who continue to drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He also argued that there will \u201calways be an alternative to drink driving\u201d, even for those in the most rural areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is simply no excuse or reason for anyone to drink drive and it is troubling to see Moray and the Highlands with some of the highest numbers of offenders per head of population anywhere in Scotland,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe risks are so well known and obvious.<\/p>\n
\u201cDrink driving can lead to lives being lost or irrevocably changed forever and I\u2019m actually shocked we should still be having to say this.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven in more remote and rural areas there will always be an alternative to drink driving so there is never an excuse for taking such a huge risk with your own life, or the lives of others.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the Highland Alcohol and Drug Partnership suggested that the high rate of offences could be down to the area\u2019s lack of public transport and rural nature.<\/p>\n
He also argued that a dramatic rise in the rate, from 2019 onwards, was because figures were changed to include drug driving offences from October 2019 onwards.<\/p>\n
However, the Highlands were among the country\u2019s highest both before and after the change in statistics.<\/p>\n
The new Police Scotland figures have also revealed that Moray had the fourth-highest rate of drink driving last year.<\/p>\n
The spokesman said: \u201cHighland’s rate increased when drugs offences were introduced and have remained fairly high since then.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Highland is among the country\u2019s worst areas for drink and drug driving, \u201ctroubling\u201d new figures have revealed. New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,188,11310,4884,1501,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-241708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-educate-me","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-latest-news","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114804181177991169","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}