Young men targeted by drink-drive campaign 45/45 oveyr 2

The 18- to 24-year-old age group is responsible for more than a quarter of drink-related accidents. Christian Wolmar reports

Young men are being targeted in this summer's anti-drink drive campaign because they cause a disproportionate amount of alcohol-related accidents.

Men aged between 18 and 24 have proved resistant to previous anti-drink campaigns and are responsible for more than a quarter of all drink-drive accidents, though they only represent 8 per cent of licence-holders. In 1994, men in their twenties were involved in 40 per cent of drink- related accidents.

Women are not featured in the campaign because 94 per cent of drink-related fatal accidents involve male drivers.

The television adverts will only be shown on Channel 4 and satellite television stations as these are most likely to be watched by young people. They will be screened after 9pm, the threshold for violent or sexually graphic scenes on television.

The pounds 1.1m advertising campaign, which began last night,shows the aftermath of an accident in which a young man has been badly hurt. His friend, "who only had a couple", says "at least we can still be mates ... can't we", even though the victim is crippled for life.

The theme was devised after research by the advertising agency DMB&B, with small groups of young drink-drivers showed that they were most likely to respond to this type of message.

The research which tested various approaches found that for this age group, crippling a friend or relative for life and having to live with the guilt are the worst possible consequences of a drink-drive accident.

The department of Transport said: "These young men feel they are immortal. The research suggested they do not respond to the usual goody-goody injunctions not to drink and drive but are worried about hurting their friends. It means they would lose face among their peer group."

Steven Norris, the road safety minister, said that while there had been a great improvement in attitudes towards drink-driving, drunk drivers still killed 10 people on the roads every week. "Over the past 10 years the number of people killed in drink-drive accidents has fallen by nearly 60 per cent from 1,173 in 1984 to around 500 last year. Publicity campaigns, legislation and enforcement have all played their part in this success. But we must keep this success in perspective. Drink-driving still kills around 10 people every week."

Young men drank together in groups and could be easily influenced by peer pressure, he said. "I think they can be persuaded to stop drinking and driving, if we get the message right."

Mr Norris said that the Government was reviewing whether the current limit of 80mg per 100 millilitres of blood should be reduced.

He said that while several other European countries did have lower limits, he remained to be convinced whether a reduced limit would lead to fewer deaths. "You have to take people with you. At the moment they support the existing limit, but if you made it too bureaucratic, they might not any more."