Driving the message

by Mike

Whether we like it or not rubbernecking exists. When the traffic is slowed on a road because of an accident we all try and stretch to see what happened as we drive by. Some of these accidents are the result of drink driving.

The advertisements we see on television that warn of the perils of drink driving are horrible and at the same time graphically brilliant. One would’ve thought that ads such as these would make anyone stop and question the nature of a person’s decision to even attempt to drive after drinking even one pint of alcohol.

So when a survey in Britain shows that one in five teenagers have driven while under the influence of alcohol and one in 14 has driven after taking drugs, it should make people sit up and take notice.

Charity Brake who carried out the survey with Co-operative Insurance (CIS) found that nearly a third of the 3,118 17 to 18-year-olds asked had been in a car when the driver was drunk or on drugs. It makes me wonder what life lessons are actually being given out to teenagers by their parents and also just who is selling them drink to go and even attempt these actions.

Recent reports showed that a girl of 11 years old was sold by an off licence member of staff and all without questioning her age. While attempts are always going to be made by those under 18 to gain access to drink in someway, surely there must be a limit to what they should be allowed to get up to.

Don’t drink and drive and become a family like we are, without our son. We are part of a club that I don’t want to be part of.

Jane Evason, whose son Gareth died after being hit by a drunk driver in 1998.

We read every weekend of young lives being lost, usually on a back road in a county in Ireland in the early hours of a Saturday or Sunday morning. I do believe there is sometimes a mistaken belief that if it is/was ok for our parents to possibly drink and drive then it’s ok for us(teenagers) to drink and to take it that one step further with drugs while driving.

Maybe they think it’s fun and a badge of honour to be involved an a high profile accident such as the ones demonstrated in the drive safety advertisements? What is certain is the fact that the more attempts to drive under the influence that are made, by anyone, the more the chance of an accident is likely.

We need to start educating not just the drivers of today, we’ve got to start thinking about educating the drivers of tomorrow, the 12 and 13-year-olds who are going to be coming onto our roads in the next few years.

Inspector Russell Clark, West Yorkshire’s Head of Roads Policing

Educating the 12 and 13-year-olds of this world might be the answer but for it to work the warnings must be heeded. On the evidence of the surveys and accidents we read about, the current generation of teenagers do not feel the need to listen to the advice that is available to them.

Thursday, August 30th, 2007 and is filed under Pain and suffering, Thoughts & Questions, Views on News.