MORE than 60 motorists on North Yorkshire’s roads were arrested during the latest police crackdown on festive drink-drivers.

North Yorkshire Police stopped 3,791 drivers between December 1, 2008, and January 1, 2009, of which 62 were arrested either for failing a breath test or refusing to take the test.

Of the drivers arrested, 21 were aged under 25 and 14 were involved in a road traffic collision.

Police chiefs in charge of the road safety campaign have hailed the figures, which give a breath test failure rate of 1.63 per cent.

This is an improvement on last year’s failure rate of 2.7 per cent, when 119 arrests were made, and significantly lower than the national average of 4.99 per cent.

Inspector Dave Brown, North Yorkshire Police’s head of strategic roads policing, said: “It is pleasing to note that our key messages are getting through to the vast majority of sensible and law-abiding motorists in York and North Yorkshire.

“But it is always the idiotic minority who let everyone down and pose a real danger to other road users and pedestrians.

“It is also very alarming that a third of the motorists arrested for drink-driving were aged 25 and under.

“It’s not as if these individuals aren’t aware of the ‘don’t drink and drive’ message – they’ve knowingly broken the law and risked life and limb.”

North Yorkshire Police ran the campaign in conjunction with the “95 Alive” York and North Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership.

They embraced the theme “176 Reasons ... No Excuses”, which represented the 176 people killed or seriously injured in drink related-collisions on North Yorkshire roads in the last three years.

As well as strict enforcement by North Yorkshire Police, the campaign focused on a range of educational and promotional work to highlight the dangers of drink and drug driving.

This included the “I’ll Be Des” promotion to encourage people to be the designated driver on nights out.

They also used blue-tooth technology to send animated anti-drink drive mobile phone messages in hotspot areas such as pubs and bars.

Insp Brown said: “Drink and drug-drive collisions not only devastate the lives of victims and their families, but they also ruin the lives and livelihoods of the offenders.

“Driving under the influence of any substance, whether it is alcohol or drugs, is not acceptable. Alcohol and drugs can impair your ability to judge speed and distances, reduce concentration and delay reaction speed.

“We simply cannot tolerate this killer combination on our roads.”