The police have made it clear. Don’t bother with the sob stories if you are caught drink driving this Christmas break. They’ve heard them all before. It’s not going to help you.
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It’s not like the message is new. Drink driving costs lives. Costs health. Costs freedom. Costs jobs. Costs money.
The quick drive home after having had a few is deadly. Nobody is safe if you are behind the wheel with alcohol in your system. A brew or two can make you think you are invincible. You are not.
So, if you drive or ride this holiday break after drinking and get pulled over, don’t whinge if you are fined, or lose your licence. The toll could be much higher.
And don’t think you can get away with having a few bevvies on an inland beach and then take your jet ski or boat out for a spin. The cops are going to be there too, breathalyser in hand.
A Transport Accident Commission advert as part of its Towards Zero campaign this year brought home the cost of speed, drinks, drugs and lack of attention on our roads.
A man is told the death toll on Victorian roads last year was 249. He is asked what is a more acceptable figure. He says 70. Then 70 members of his family walk around the corner. His reply quickly becomes: Zero. It packs a punch. It drives home a message that if you drink and drive it’s your loved ones who might die.
The campaign was a timely change from more graphic adverts of the past – of cars veering silently into trees, a speeding mother hitting a boy. Those haven’t stopped the toll. Maybe this one will help us get a step closer to that elusive zero.
For everybody thinks it won’t happen to them. Everybody thinks it will be somebody else’s family or friends killed, or facing life-changing injuries. Everybody thinks a little extra speed or a few drinks don’t really matter. Until something goes wrong. And a cyclist is killed. A car is side-swiped. A car flips. A pedestrian is knocked down.
A slogan, now iconic from years of use, sums up the message police are putting out there again this Christmas: “If you drink and drive you’re a bloody idiot.”
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