Graphic images of real road accidents will feature in a stark series of government-sponsored television advertisements to discourage drink-driving this Christmas.

At the launch of the campaign in London yesterday, the winner of the Channel 4 Big Brother contest, Craig Phillips, told how his father died when he was hit by a car driven by a drunk driver in 1984.

"I am backing the campaign because I know from bitter experience how drink-driving can wreck lives. I was 13 when my dad was knocked down and killed by a drink-driver," Mr Phillips said.

"His death shattered our family. The memory of his loss is often hardest to bear at Christmas because it's a time when families traditionally come together.

"People must realise that drinking and driving kills. My message is simple. Don't drink and drive this Christmas. Don't take the chance of destroying a life and a family."

In the campaign, Christmas favourites Mistletoe and Wine, by Cliff Richard, and I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day, by Roy Wood and Wizard, will be played over scenes of road carnage.

The adverts were shown for the first time last night and will run until New Year's Eve.

At the launch, the transport minister Lord Whitty said: "We hope this hard hitting campaign will serve as a reminder to people of the very real dangers of drink-driving.

"These commercials contain very harrowing images, which we believe will hammer home the message that drinking and driving can wreck lives."

Pauline Clare, the vice-chairwoman of the Association of Chief Police Officers' road policing committee, said: "Drivers have the responsibility to think before they drink and drive and not combine the two.

"This responsibility doesn't just rest with the driver. Society needs to reject drink-driving as an option."

This year's campaign is aimed at all drivers although past efforts have concentrated on young male motorists and a hard core of middle-aged drivers who have ignored the anti drinking and driving message.

Successive governments have been pleased with the decline in the number of people killed annually in drink-drive related crashes.

But ministers are anxious for a greater reduction in the fatality rate. In the early 1980s this was as high as 1,500 a year. The figure for 1999 was around 420 - a decrease from the 1998 figure of 460.
Press Association