Officers from North Yorkshire Police carried out a total of 3,791 breath tests across the county and made 62 arrests for failing a breath test or failure to provide a breath specimen.

And out of those arrested, 21 were aged under 25.

December’s failure rate equated to just 1.63 per cent of those tested compared with a failure rate of 2.7 per cent for the same period in 2007. Nationally, the failure rate for December’s campaign was just under five per cent.

Insp Dave Brown, North Yorkshire Police’s head of strategic roads policing, said: “It is pleasing to note that our key messages are getting through to the vast majority of sensible and law-abiding motorists in North Yorkshire.

“But it is always the idiotic minority who let everyone down and pose a real danger to other road users and pedestrians. It is also very alarming that a third of the motorists arrested for drink-driving were aged 25 and under.

“It’s not as if these individuals aren’t aware of the ‘don’t drink and drive’ message; they’ve knowingly broken the law and risked life and limb.”

He added that drink- and drug-drive collisions not only devastated the lives of victims and their families but also ruined the lives and livelihoods of the offenders.

“Driving under the influence of any substance, whether it is alcohol or drugs, is not acceptable. Alcohol and drugs can impair your ability to judge speed and distances, reduce concentration and delay reaction speed. We simply cannot tolerate this killer combination on our roads,” he said.

Nationally there was an 11 per cent increase in under-25s failing breath tests over the Christmas period, with 2,709 testing positive out of the 48,214 under-25s who were breathalysed.

The campaign ran between December and January under the 95 Alive York and North Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership and was part of the Association of Chief Police Officers’ national Christmas Drink and Drug Drive Campaign.

County Cllr John Fort, the executive member for road safety said: “This very significant reduction in the number of drivers testing positive at the roadside is really encouraging.

“It shows that most drivers in North Yorkshire are taking responsibility for staying sober and drug free when they drive. The numerous and very visible police patrols undoubtedly played a major part in this and we are delighted to see that the rate of positive tests in our county is so much lower than nationally.

“Now we need to eliminate this kind of behaviour altogether and we will continue to work with the police to target the minority who still put other peoples lives at risk.”