Listen up: Don't drink and drive!

Linda McAvoy

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

The Scottish government recently announced it will spend £10,000 (approx. $20,000 Canadian) to place anti-drinking and driving advertisements in Xbox 360 games.

Virtual billboards seen in the background of Scottish versions of several online games, including the street-racing game Need for Speed: Carbon, will carry the message "Drink drive. Lose licence. Don't risk it."

Online comments following the Scottish government's announcement were mixed, with critics considering it a waste of money and questioning the logic of posting real-life warnings in a fantasy game where drivers happily careen down roads, bouncing off walls and surviving spectacular crashes at ridiculous speeds.

Some gamers objected to the embedded public service announcement, fearing it "sets a dangerous precedent for unwanted forms of subtle social engineering."

Others, however, believe the ads are a simple, non-intrusive yet effective way of getting the message out to a huge audience.

So, how likely is it that an inebriated gamer will remember a warning from their virtual soccer match and actually put down those car keys? Hey, you never know. Hear the message enough, it might eventually get through.

The point here is the Scottish online campaign is a new way to spread that tired, old, but desperately important message: Don't drink and drive.

Coming up with innovative and effective impaired driving education, awareness and enforcement campaigns certainly isn't easy but they must continue and evolve, because apparently there's plenty of people still drinking and driving.

During the latest festive-season RIDE program, (Nov. 28, 2007 to Jan. 2, 2008) the OPP alone stopped 846,440 vehicles, charged 336 people with alcohol-related Criminal Code offences, suspended 856 drivers' licences for 12 hours and laid 3,273 additional charges under the Highway Traffic Act.

In an open letter to the citizens of Ontario, an incredulous OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said he could not believe that "with all the knowledge, awareness, education and exposure dedicated to the prevention of this particular crime, Canadians have either tuned out the message or tuned themselves out of the problem in the misguided belief that the consequences of drunk driving will happen only to someone else."

Since statements like: "Impaired driving is the leading cause of criminal death in Canada" apparently have little effect, a variety of other methods have been devised to coax and compel compliance, as well as apprehend offenders.

Restaurant drive-through lanes have long been known as popular late-night spots frequented by hungry impaired drivers, so police in Surrey, B.C. recently launched Project WULF (Would U Like Fries), staking out fast-food restaurants and pulling over drivers who show signs of inebriation. The on-going project has resulted in numerous alcohol-related arrests and licence suspensions.

Meanwhile, police in New Jersey, Texas, Colorado and Washington who stop drivers on suspicion of drunk-driving are asking them to voluntarily answer one additional question: "Where did you have your last drink?"

Under the "Last Drink Initiative," the names of the licenced business establishments cited are then forwarded to state liquor investigators with the idea of compiling a database to aid in targeting problem areas and identifying establishments that may have a history of serving intoxicated patrons.

Taking a totally different tack, many police departments have been rewarding drivers who pass roadside checks, handing out everything from car air fresheners and a chance to win a new car in Limburg, Belgium, to turkeys in Salinas, Calif. and chocolate bars embossed with the police force's coat of arms in Fribourg, Switzerland.

A prize of a different sort was offered up last year by Ken Rossingnol, editor of St. Mary's Today, an American newspaper in Maryland, who ran an ad offering a free coffin to the first drunk driver to kill themselves during the holiday drinking and driving season.

The controversial ad brought Rossingnol, whose brother was killed by a drunk driver in 1975, and the newspaper, which has published the names of people arrested for DWI in its "DWI Hit Parade" since 1990, international attention, including a spot on YouTube.

An editorial in the paper described the ad for the plain wooden coffin as "a desperate attempt to try to convince drinkers not to drive."

The offer expired on Dec. 23, with no takers.

Fantino has stated that, to the extent resources allow, the OPP RIDE program will remain a routine event, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

So, drivers, it's just as those talking urinal cakes say (yes, there are motion-activated, battery-powered devices distributed to men's restrooms throughout New Mexico, each stamped with the slogan "You Drink, You Drive, You Lose" that deliver a recorded anti-drunk driving message):

"Make sure if you're drinking, you find a sober driver."

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