I still love this slogan:
Illinois State Police have a safety initiative called Drive Hammered...
Get Nailed!
I've been hurtling
toward these holidays -- ready to relax and be done with so many details
and obligations. For millions of Canadians, part of decompressing after
the pre-holiday race might just involve some alcohol. No big surprise
then, that the hard edges tend to get worn off the warnings around boozing
and motoring. I mean, it's not the 70s, and we're not plastered in the
driver's seat like our dads would have gotten away with. So why worry so
much? The statistics say we are on a steady pace to teetotalling behind
the wheel.
According to the sober
statisticians at the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF), just 15.8%
of Canadian drivers reported driving a vehicle within two hours of
consuming alcohol in the previous 30 days; down from the 16.1% who
reported the same in 2002 and the 16.7% in 2001. At this rate, we should
be drinks-free drivers in no time -- at which time we can hold one hell of
a victory party.
Is that actually our
goal? To culminate our Christmas cotillions or martini lunches with a
two-hour cooling out period before joining the other crazies on the road?
Well, most kids scoffed at the one-hour-warning before swimming, and for
better or worse, TIRF's poll says that millions of drivers still get
behind the wheel of a vehicle after consuming alcohol. They estimate that
in the past year, 1.4 million Canadians drove when they thought they were
over the legal limit. 21% of those polled admit to doing so four or more
times.
The survey doesn't
reveal whether those drivers felt really bad about it afterwards.
And those serial
drunks, did they repeatedly go out and then feel really bad about it? For
anyone who has noticed that angel-and-demon couple surfing on the
shoulders, the answer is probably "Yes. (Sigh...)" followed by "Oh well,
Schlitz happens."
Back with the
statistics again, TIRF showed that only 6% of drivers know the alcohol
limit in their province -- the blood alcohol level at which their licence
can be immediately yanked. That could be because they don't care -- or
maybe they feel there's no option. Six per cent is probably close to the
number of Canadians who are near really good transit when the bar closes.
The 94% of us ignorant
types could be shamed twice over -- how many know that you can still get
hit for impaired driving even without blowing the legal limit? Just poke
yourself in the eye a couple of times -- instead of touching your nose --
and a road-side R.I.D.E. constable can pull you out of circulation just
the same.
There are critics,
especially in the States, who decry the relentless Don't Drink and Drive
campaigns as a modern-day temperance crusade, aided by legislative
overkill that brings "ever-decreasing" legal blood alcohol levels. They
say that impaired-driving deaths have declined sharply in the last two
decades, so stop scaring the guy who has a beer with dinner and go after
the two or three percent of drivers who just can't, or won't, stop
themselves from repeatedly driving drunk.
The debate can wander
into a grey area between responsible societal sel-defense and the right of
people to judge for themselves how much legally-available liquid to
consume before operating a commonly used transportation device.
And then an allegedly
drunken hockey star takes out his wing-man in a tragic, public, shock.
Stunned, we learn that the penalty for this crime is now as grave as life
in prison. That grey fog blows off quick, and we sober up. For a time.
So when unwinding from
an up-tight December, keep one eye open. Know thyself, thine ability to
drive, and the moment when thy judgment is no longer worth Schlitz.
Ed Drass, National
Post
Email the Traffic Guru
at edrass@nationalpost.com or
fax him at
416-322-7016