Drinking and driving makes you a bloody idiot. They will literally be wiping blood off your steering wheel. Too graphic? It's been said thousands of times in thousands of ways, yet it never seems to be enough?
Kudos to RCMP officers who spend weekends at check-stops. Officers don't want to be marking off wrecked vehicle scenes that could have been avoided, or be knocking on doors to tell sad news to people they know in the community.
A MADD report from 2008 states that 1,162 of 2,694 vehicle collisions fatalities were caused by impaired driving and these are conservative estimates. 43 per cent of these could have been avoided by wiser choices. There are 149,028 crashes in 2008, or roughly 408 per day. Inconceivable.
Stats aside, why do friends not take away an impair friend's car keys? It is everyone's responsibility to take care of friends and family if they know they are too impaired to drive.
Thankfully it's becoming cool to be the designated driver, not the designated drinker. Most bartenders will give a DD free non-alcoholic drinks and the ladies love a sober responsible chap looking after his friends.
Responsibility is giving someone else the car keys when the party's getting started, planning to phone a taxi on speed dial or ask the waitress or someone else to dial for you. This is a simple gesture compared to apologizing to a victim's family.
The MADD mothers did fancy math with Ministry of Transportation stats and estimated social costs of death and damage caused by impaired drivers totals a chunk of change worth $21.62 billion in 2008. Why not plan ahead and change those numbers? Walk home or crash on the couch at the party.
Stay safe and have a fun summer out in Canada's outdoor playground. Plan ahead to sober up first and don't ruin the weekend because there's no undo button on the steering wheel.
P.S. this was my first real editorial and the publisher helped me a bit to polish it up into something more tactful, believe me, my first draft was pretty passionate and there were more stats of all the stupidity... but the inconceivable! comment I got to leave in because she likes Princess Bride too.
I loved simple effectiveness of these MADD campaign posters, very smart in a brutal way. So ya... a close subject to the heart when one of my soccer buddies was killed while driving his motorcycle by a drunk on the highway, so hence the heated writing.
If one more person changes his/her mind, my job is done, this is what I signed up to do ^_^ make a difference. Cheers to a safe weekend.
If one more person changes his/her mind, my job is done, this is what I signed up to do ^_^ make a difference. Cheers to a safe weekend.
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