Drink drive safely sheriff slammed

A Scottish sheriff has come under fire for telling a drink-driver to find out how much alcohol he could get away with behind the wheel.

Sheriff Robert McCreadie told James Thomson, who was in the dock: "What you should do, and the information is freely available on the Internet, is find out how many bottles of beer you can drink and safely go on to drive. I was told you were drinking beer and could not remember how many. You were quite careless."

Campaigners were stunned by the advice and stressed the only safe amount to drink was none at all.

Jack Law, head of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said the lack of zero tolerance was 'worrying'. He added: "It is very difficult to convert the legal drink drive limit into a number of drinks because this depends on so many factors including your gender, weight, strength of the drink and how quickly it is absorbed."

RAC road safety consultant Robin Cummins added: "Being within the limit doesn't guarantee your reactions behind the wheel are as good as they should be. The only way to go about it is not to drink at all."

Police found Thomson, of Larkhall, Lanarkshire, lying on a road in Perthshire after he crashed his van and called them for help. He was banned for a year and fined £400 for the offence.

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