As a former school bus driver Roger Bass had already been convicted once of drink-driving, it seems remarkable he didn't think before risking it a second time.

But Mr Bass had thought. He told himself he was never going to drink and drive again. Trouble was, he didn't realise just how long it takes alcohol to work its way out of the body.

The night before he was pulled over by the police he had been drinking. He had gone to bed at 11.30pm and set off for work at 7am the next morning. But the four cans of lager and two brandies from the night before came back with a vengeance.

A breath test proved more than positive and, as he had had a previous drink-driving conviction in 1998 in Wivenhoe, Mr Bass was jailed for two months and banned from driving for three years. He didn't only lose his licence. He lost his job - he was a school bus driver working in Chelmsford - and his lifestyle.

He says he won't drive again - his ban ends later this year - but, from what he said, it was hard to understand why. Much more understandable is the importance Mr Bass's story plays in the Essex Summer Drink-Drive Campaign, one of two yearly campaigns - the other is at Christmas - organised by the Essex Casualty Reduction Partnership.

This is the second year the partnership has held campaigns; previously they were down to Essex Police, with back-up from the county council. Now, all emergency services, the county council and road safety organisations are shouting the same drink-drive message via the partnership.

And they were shouting it very loudly during the campaign's launch at Chelmsford, which coincided with the Government's £1.6million Think! campaign, unveiled by road safety minister Jim Fitzpatrick. This summer, the message from Essex echoes Mr Bass's story - the morning after.

"The only real answer is not to drink any alcohol at all if you are driving, but many people think they are sticking to that if they drive the next day," explained Chief Inspector Tom Diment, Essex Police's head of road policing. "They may think they are OK, but that is not the point. The law states you cannot drive with alcohol in your body above a certain limit. If you do, you are breaking the law."

Bus drivers, taxi drivers, parents driving their children to school had all been stopped by police the morning after the night before.

"Many are amazed when they fail the breath test," said Mr Diment, "because they had not gone to bed drunk. But you don't have to be drunk to be over the limit."

Pubs and clubs are no longer the only places which can trigger drink-driving. This is why Rosemary Welch believes the partnership's summer campaign is as important - if not more important - than the Christmas campaign.

"It's all to do with our change in summer lifestyle," pointed out Ms Welch, Essex County Council's network and safety manager.

"We like to spend our days outside during the summer, especially at barbecues. People drink all day at barbecues, but, because it is over a long period of time, they do not feel drunk.

"They think they can drive - and they do."

Sometimes, they are not only driving themselves home but their partners and their children.

"This is one of the things we want people to think about," said Ms Welch. "That, and the morning after."

But do high-profile media campaigns like this work? There must have been a dozen police officers, paramedics and road safety officers backing up the campaign "caravan" and handing out posters and leaflets during the lunchtime launch. Were they - or us, for that matter - necessary?

"Yes," stressed Mr Diment. "Publicity is a major contributing factor in all our drink-driving and road safety campaigns. You help us reach the vast majority of the public who tend to be reasonable when it comes to drink-driving."

And those who are not reasonable? He was unequivocal.

"They will be caught," he declared.

DRINK-DRIVING: THE FACTS

  • Essex Police carried out 4,809 breath tests - 2.64 per cent were positive - in summer last year, the fourth highest number of stop checks out of 43 forces
  • People aged between 17 and 24 make up the highest numbers of offenders and casualties in drink-driving incidents. There were 1,050 17 to 19-year-olds involved in drink-driving accidents in England and Wales in 2005, compared with 810 in 1995. For 20 to 25-year-olds, the figure increased from 2,170 to 2,280 in the same period
  • Nearly one in six of all deaths on the road - 3,000 people are killed or seriously injured on UK roads each year - involve drivers over the legal limit (80 mgs of alcohol in 100 mls of blood; breath-alcohol 35mgs per 100ml; alcohol-urine 107 mgs per 100 mls). Those who drive at twice the legal limit are at least 50 times more likely to be involved in a fatal car crash
  • Any amount of alcohol affects the ability to drive safely. Effects can include slower reactions, poorer judgement of speed and distance, reduced field of vision.