New driver news - Insurance for young driver buyers should not rely on app

Car insurance news - App does not dictate driver safety

Drink driving is the reason behind many road accidents in the UK. Such incidents can cause severe personal injuries and fatalities, and often involve buyers of insurance for young drivers.

A new app available on smart phones, called BreathalEyes, claims it can tell motorists whether they are too intoxicated to get behind the wheel.

However, although the makers of the app state that it is "for entertainment purposes only" there is still a possibility that some new drivers and more experienced motorists will interpret the results from the app as an indication that they are fit to drive after drinking alcohol.

The app uses the phone's camera to track the user's eye movements, but the AA's Head of Road Safety, Andrew Howard, advises against trusting its analysis.

He states, 'If you test when you leave a pub car park, your blood alcohol levels will rise for about 40 minutes – so you could pass a BreathalEyes test, then fail the real thing half an hour later.

"There's nothing illegal about [the app], but you wouldn't be measuring whether you are safe, you are measuring whether you are legal.

"Technologically speaking, this seems more likely to warn you that you couldn't drive when you could – it doesn't just detect if you're drunk, it also detects if you're impaired by anything, even a cold, or a twitch, or just that there are too many bright lights when you do the test."

For buyers of insurance for young drivers and more experienced road users who want to drink before travelling somewhere, the best way to undertake their journey following the consumption of alcohol is by taxi, public transport, or with help from a designated driver. As always, the best advice is don't drink and drive.