MORE than three-quarters of drivers involved in injury accidents on Dorset's roads escaped being breath-tested.

And that puts the county as the second worst police authority in the country for breath-testing drivers involved in injury collisions.

But Superintendent David Griffith of Dorset Police said their policy is to test all drivers after an accident regardless of which driver is to blame.

Department for Transport figures show that in Dorset 77 per cent of drivers in accidents involving injury had not been breath-tested - a figure only topped by Hertfordshire where 80 per cent were not tested.

Drivers are also less likely to be breath-tested in Britain than in almost any other European country.

Only nine per cent of drivers in Britain have been tested in the past three years compared with an EU average of 26 per cent.

But drivers were far more likely to be breathalysed in countries that permitted police to carry out random breath-testing, a report by the Satre Road Safety Group found.

Britain joins Ireland and Italy as one of the few EU states which prohibits random testing.

Britain is also among the minority in not lowering the driving limit for alcohol from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood to 50mg of alcohol, which would prevent 65 deaths and 230 injuries a year, according to a recent study by Professor Richard Allsop of the Centre for Transport Studies at University College London.

Home Office figures show that the numbers of drivers breathalysed by Dorset Police dropped from a total of 10,400 drivers in 2002 to 8,500 in 2003.

Superintendent Griffith said: "As far as we are concerned if Dorset Police attend a traffic collision at the roadside we will breath-test all drivers involved - not only the blameworthy drivers but all drivers involved in the collision.

"If an accident is reported to us subsequently - ie an accident we don't attend at the roadside - then depending on the amount of time elapsed since the accident, officers make a judgement as to whether a breath-test is required.

"For instance if the accident happened last night there is no point in testing them today but if someone had an accident 20 minutes ago we would breath-test them."

A spokesman for Dorset Police added: "Comparing 2004 with 2003 there was a reduction of more than 3.2 per cent in the number of people killed and seriously injured on Dorset roads.

"Dorset Police has a policy of testing all drivers involved in road traffic collisions which the police attend or were called."

He added that Dorset Police was examining the breath-testing statistics published in The Times.

First published: May 27