 
If you drink and drive, you are a bloody
idiot. Alcohol is a drug that affects the central nervous system, resulting in cognitive and psychomotor impairment. It is also a drug that is readily available and socially acceptable, in spite of the consequences of excessive usage. This irresponsible behaviour results in a significant burden on the public health and welfare systems, as well as on social and family relationships and on fatalities. In spite of legislation which allows courts to hand out fines of up to R120,000 as well as long prison sentences, we still experience high figures of alcohol abuse on our roads. Approximately 7% of drivers and 14% of pedestrians are over the legal limit during the night-time hours. The consequences of using the road when under the influence of alcohol are serious. Besides the possibility of death or serious injury, the fine and prison sentence, you are left with a criminal record, and may also cost the life of an innocent person, or a permanent disabling injury to a loved one. Imagine being responsible for the paralysis of your own child, through your own irresponsible behaviour. The level of alcohol in your blood can depend on many factors including body size, gender and general health. More than one drink every hour (one glass of wine, one normal beer, one tot of spirits) will probably put you over the legal limit. You can feel quite sober, and still have cognitive function and sight affected, which will affect your ability to drive safely. Even one alcoholic drink DOUBLES the chances of involvement in a road crash, if you are a driver. The change of having a crash at the legal limit is approximately five times that when sober. Drinking alcohol has equally serious consequences for pedestrians, and the vast majority of the four thousand pedestrians killed on South Africans roads annually are drunk. It is estimated that nearly half of the deaths which occur on the roads of KwaZulu Natal annually, are related to alcohol and drug abuse. This leads to the unnecessary loss of almost a thousand lives, directly affecting many thousands of people. As a society we need to make sure that our community knows and understands and drinking and driving are unacceptable. We need to raise awareness of the consequences of such behaviour, and protect our friends and relatives from driving when drunk. If you are planning to drink alcohol, or take drugs, make plans to take a taxi home, get somebody else to drive you, stay where you are until REALLY sober, call home and be fetched. But don’t mix drinking and driving ... it could have fatal consequences.
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