Alco-analyser statistics released yesterday by Police paint a dismal picture of Bermuda's battle against impaired driving so far this year.

During the first quarter of 1999, Police officers made 77 impaired driving arrests -- a whopping 24 more than the 53 arrests made between January and March in 1998.

Of these 77 arrests, 31 people failed the alco-analyser test, 27 refused to take it and 19 passed.

The statistics for the first quarter of this year indicate that males are more likely to break impaired driving laws, comprising 70 of the 77 arrests.

Of the seven women arrested, four failed the test and three passed.

Of the 70 men arrested, 27 failed, 16 passed and 27 refused to blow into the breathalyser.

By age, people between the ages of 31 and 40 accounted for the largest proportion of arrests with 26 being nabbed by Police officers.

Twenty three arrests were made against people between 22 and 30 years of age.

Saturday is the most popular night for people to break the law with 17 arrests occurring on this day, followed closely behind by Sunday, which collected 16 arrests.

And the busiest time for officers is between 1 and 3 a.m. when officers pulled over 29 drivers during the first three months of the year, the statistics show.

Forty-five of the arrests were made against bike riders and 27 against car drivers. Two taxi drivers were also nabbed by officers as were two van drivers and a trucker.

The average failure rate of the people who took the test was 171.9 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood -- more than twice the legal limit of 80 milligrams per 100 millilitres.

Other statistics show that the highest reading of all was 257 milligrams per 100 millilitres. The youngest person arrested was 17 -- he refused to take the test -- and the oldest was 70 years old with a blood/alcohol reading of 90 milligrams per 100 millilitres.