Drivers are being reminded of the dangers of getting behind the wheel of a vehicle the morning after drinking alcohol.

According to the Road Safety Authority (RSA), which has launched a campaign to raise awareness of this, people can still have alcohol in their system the morning after, increasing the risk of an accident.

The authority carried out an analysis of fatal road collisions in Ireland between 2008 and 2012 and found that when it came to alcohol-related crashes, at least one in 10 (11%) of the 222 fatal collisions in which a driver had been drinking, occurred between the hours of 7am and 11am.

"Whether you should drive the next morning depends on how much you've drunk and if you've left enough time for your system to get rid of the alcohol. Going to bed in the early hours and not getting a good night's sleep will only magnify the impairing effects of any alcohol in your system," commented RSA chief executive, Moyagh Murdock.

She noted that while most people would never knowingly drink and drive, ‘the reality is that some people don't think about the repercussions of drink driving the following morning'.

"This campaign aims to make people aware of the dangers of the following morning so they can continue to do the right thing and arrange alternative transport. Drink driving is drink driving no matter what time of the day or week it is," Ms Murdock said.

In the first seven months of this year, over 5,100 drivers had been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of an intoxicant, compared to just over 4,500 in the same period last year, marking a 15% increase.