What will happen to my insurance if I drink drive?

As you can see from previous post, drink driving is an extremely bad risk. Allow me to use the word, "Terrible".

It goes to show the immaturity and irresponsibility of the driver. Insurers generally dislike writing such risk due to the high bodily injury claims if an accident is involved which can easily escalate to a S$100k loss. And accordingly to the Motor Act, Insurer has to settle any bodily injury claims (first) even if the policy condition is infringed. Ouch!

As such, if you drink drive, do not be surprised at all if your insurer cancel your policy mid-term or decline renewal of your policy. They simply can't afford to write on it anymore due to the risk and hazards elements present.

In the event that you are lucky enough to get a renewal or a new quote elsewhere, the rates and excess will definitely not be low. In fact, do not be amazed if it jumps by few folds which is quite common in the market.

So, if you drink, do not drive.

The consequence of drink driving

If you are caught drink driving by the Traffic Police, the penalties are as listed below.

Legal Implications
First Time – Fined between $1000/- and $5000/- or six months imprisonment.

Second Time – Fined between $3000/- and $10,000/- fine and imprisonment for a term of up to one year.

Repeated Time – Face enhanced punishment up to 3 times the penalty, a maximum of $30,000/- fine and three years' imprisonment.

Offenders causing death or serious injuries can also be caned up to 6 strokes.

All those convicted will be disqualified from driving for at least 1 year, even if they have not caused any traffic accidents.


Personal Implications
Other than having your license revoked and charged by the authority, you might also face some inconvenience below.

1. Job - If your job requires you to drive, it will be a great blow to your rice bowl. It will be worse if you are enjoying car allowance from your work. If you are transferred to backend staff, most likely the car allowance will be discontinued as well.

2. Finance - The fact that you are not able to drive means your car will not be utilised. This is especially true if there is no one else in your family that can take over. If there is still a loan, the interest will also continue to run. This means added travel costs and inconvenience.

Drink Driving Related Accidents decreased but number of persons caught drink driving increased

Accordingly to Singapore Traffic Polic record, the number of drink driving-related accidents fell from 288 in 2006 to 188 in 2007, a decrease of 100 cases. The number of persons killed in drink driving-related accidents also decreased from 25 to 15. Similarly, the number of persons injured in such accidents decreased from 336 to 263 in 2007. Of these, 7 suffered serious injuries. Appended in Tables below are the number of drink driving accident cases and persons killed/injured for 2007 and 2006 respectively.

The alarming thing is although there is a decrease in drink driving related accidents, but the number of persons caught drink driving increased by 7%. You might think, "So what? It's merely 7% increase!" But wait, do you know that in 2004, the figure is only 2929 and in 2005, it skyrocketed to 3641? It goes to display a consistent upward trend of persons caught drink driving. It means 2 things at least. Firstly, there are likely more checks conducted by the authority. It can also means that more and more people caught drink and drive.

Note what i'm saying here - caught drink driving. There are probably many more who still drink drive and should count themselves lucky that the arm of justice has not reached them as yet.

So, if you want to drink and drive, I urge you to think about your family and friends first. In most cases, the passengers have a lower chances of survival. If you want to drink, don't drive.

Table 1: Number of drink-driving accidents
	2006	2007
Fatal Accident	24	14
Serious Accident	8	6
Slight Accident	256	168
TOTAL	288	188

 

Table 2: Number of persons killed or injured in drink-driving related accidents
	2006	2007
Killed	25	15
Seriously Injured	10	7
Slightly Injured	326	256
TOTAL	361	278

For 2007, more persons were arrested for drink driving, from 3,733 persons in 2006 to 4,009 in 2007. Table 3 shows the number of persons arrested.

Table 3: Number of persons arrested for drink-driving
	2006	2007
Non-accident	3,152	3,447
Accident (includes Non-injury cases)	581	562
TOTAL	3,733	4,009

Did I drink drive?

Drink driving is an increasing concern, not just for the Traffic Police (TP) and Land Transport Authority (LTA), but also for the insurers.

But, what is drink driving really? If i drink, am i considered drink driving then?



1. Legal limit
You are considered drink driving if you have more than the legal limit of 35 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath (the blood-alcohol equivalent is more than 80 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood).

2. Traffic Police judgement
However, you can still be arrested for drink driving should the traffic police think you do not have sufficient control of your vehicle. For example, a driver who is seen driving in a zig-zag manner may have a breath sample registering an alcohol level within the legal limit. But he will still be liable for conviction.


So, how many glasses of beer or liquor will cause one to be drunk or exceed the legal limit? One glass or 1 bottle? Well, I would say it all depends on individual. Some people can hold their liquor even after few glasses of hard liquor while others may be completely drunk after 1 or 2 glasses of beer.

Nevertheless, the moral of the story remains the same. If you want to drink, don't drive. If you drive, don't drink.