Thursday, February 20, 2014

Cars and bars

Pic of the week


The Travelled Monkey - cars and bars

Alcohol control on the ring of Antwerp last Saturday. That night on the A12 between Antwerp and Brussels nearly one in four drivers who were stopped blew over the legal blood-alcohol limit. Photo by John Weaver
Last Saturday my sister-in-law traded us her car for our toddler so we could have a night on the town in Antwerp with our friends Trevor and Hanne. It was sometime just after midnight and we were about to leave the city when we saw that the police had blocked the entire road going out. One at a time, each car approached the barricade and the driver had to blow into a breathalyzer before being allowed through.

Not to panic – we passed with flying colors thanks to the non-drinking heroics of our designated driver Monika. 

But not everyone had a hero with them that night. 

The next morning on the radio I heard that nearly one in four drivers who were stopped the night before on the A12 between Antwerp and Brussels blew over the legal limit of .5 mg alcohol per 1,000 milliliters (which equals about one or two glasses of beer or wine). 

One in four people. That seemed like a lot, but not when I read that actually one in three car accidents in Belgium involves alcohol. This fact has even led to talk of lowering the limit to .2 mg. We can debate whether lowering the limit is the best approach, or if more policing and public awareness campaigns about drinking and driving would be better. My opinion is that simply lowering the limit and doing more policing probably won’t have a huge impact. And, sure, I’m all in favor of more public awareness campaigns about drunk driving. But (and this is not just in Belgium, but everywhere) unless parents are willing to talk about it openly with their kids, and friends with friends, I’m afraid cars and bars will continue to make a dangerous mix (… just look at these stats below).

Drunk driving deaths per country

Source: World Health Organization (WHO), Global status report on road safety 2013

Europe (% of road deaths involving alcohol)


Cyprus
43
Slovenia
36
Luxembourg
35
France
31
Portugal
31
Spain
31
Croatia
30
Belgium
25
Finland
24
N. Ireland
24
Sweden
22
Lithuania
21
Denmark
20
Netherlands
20
Estonia
15
Czech Rep
14
Great Britain
14
Germany
11
Ireland
11
Latvia
10
Poland
9
Hungary
8
Romania
8
Slovakia
8
Austria
6
Bulgaria
4
Greece
no data
Italy
no data
Malta
no data

Other


South Africa
55
Canada
33
New Zealand
32
United States
32
Australia
30
Mexico
23
Russia
8
China
3


-------
A guy walks into a bar and asks, “Do you serve women in this bar?”
”No,” replies the barman, “you have to bring your own.”

2 comments:

  1. Well you know Greece has no data for a reason... Too many to count!

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  2. I got stopped for the first time the other day (Sunday afternoon), twice in 10 minutes. Once on my way to the GB and then again on the way back home. I had to blow both times. Ironically enough I didn't see a single control on Christmas day, Boxing day or on New years.

    ReplyDelete