The number of drink-driving arrests made during 1999 was the lowest total for the past three years, Police statistics released yesterday show.

Officers made 285 arrests between January and December, last year, which was some 50 less than the 340 drink-drive arrests recorded in 1998 and slightly below the 292 arrests recorded in 1997.

Of those 285 arrests, 162 failures were recorded, 79 people refused to take the test, 43 people passed and one person escaped with a caution.

Police report fewer drink driving arrests And an age breakdown of those arrested show 97 were in the 31-to-40 age group, 72 were between 22 and 30, 53 were between 41 and 50, 32 were between 18 and 21, five were under 18 years of age, and 26 were more than 50 years old. The oldest to fail was 72 years old while the youngest was 17.

Saturdays and Sundays were the days with the most arrests -- 60 apiece -- followed by Fridays with 41 arrests, Thursdays with 36, Mondays with 33, Wednesdays with 32 and Tuesdays with 23.

The peak time for arrests was between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. when some 92 people were nabbed.

Bikes were the most popular form of transport for those being arrested with 173 bike-riders being nabbed. Cars followed with 96 arrests.

The mean average failure rate was 172.3 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood and the highest recorded reading was 370 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal amount is 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

Other statistics released yesterday were for the fourth quarter of 1999 and these showed that officers made 72 arrests between October and December as opposed to 116 arrests for the same period in 1998.

Of the 72 arrests there were 44 failures, 19 refusals and nine passes.

Twenty six arrests were made against people between the age of 31 and 40, 15 were between 22 and 30, 14 were more than 50 years of age, 12 were between 41 and 50 and five were between 18 and 21 years of age.

Fifteen arrests were made on Sundays, 14 on Saturdays, 12 on Thursdays, 11 on Wednesdays, nine on Fridays, eight on Tuesdays and three on Mondays.