At the end of last month, the PSNI were granted new powers through legislation that allowed them to randomly perform breath tests on drivers at vehicle checkpoints. Before this, a police officer had to have a reasonable suspicion that a driver was under the influence of alcohol before being able to stop them. This may have been something to do with the manner of their driving if they were swerving all over the road, have seen them committing another traffic offence such as using a mobile phone or not wearing a seatbelt, or have been called to an accident. Then and only then could a preliminary breath test be requested.
This is no more. Now we’ll be seeing police checkpoints around the country that have been established with the sole intention of breathalysing drivers and there will be no escaping if you’re over the limit because there’s nothing more suspicious than someone doing a frantic U-turn after spotting blue flashing lights ahead of them.
These new powers came to coincide with the launch of the annual winter drink drive campaign. Last year, the police reported detecting 375 people who had decided that they would take the risk of driving after drinking, threatening the futures of themselves, their family and other innocent members of the public who perhaps were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Those are at least 375 potential fatalities that were prevented but it’s not hard to fathom that the real rate of drink driving is a lot higher. Those were just the few that were caught.
Being able to randomly breathalyse drivers should see these numbers increase. I would say that I’m hopeful that that will be the case, but hopeful is the wrong word. While I hope that more idiots are taken off the road for their safety as well as that of the rest of us, I wish that we would see the numbers decrease due to fewer people getting behind the wheel after downing a few pints.
It’s inherently disgusting that there are still so many people out there who think that drink driving is something that is worth the risk. A moment of selfishness on their part can bring a lifetime of devastation for another. If we all stopped and thought for a moment, we’d probably all soon realise that each of us has personal experience of the aftermath of drink driving. In my first year at university, I met people that I thought I would know for life and one of these people was a young man called Enda. Two weeks after meeting him, he was walking back to Elms Village when he was killed by someone who had consumed both drink and drugs before deciding that driving his van was the best idea he’d had all night.
After hitting Enda, the driver drove on only to then crash into a lamppost. He then had to be cut free from his vehicle. He initially refused to provide a breath or blood sample but when the test was eventually carried out, he was found to be three times over the legal limit. Despite this, the actual details of the collision and the fact he caused the death of an innocent young man, he was sentenced to seven years in prison and to serve three and half years.
Enda’s father has since criticised the lenient sentence and has called for the courts to take tougher action. I find it hard to stomach the fact that someone who takes the life of another can face less jail time than a person potentially does if they go out to rob a house with no intended aggravation. Does our justice system really value material goods over a human life? It surely can’t and so there needs to be some major change to the current system. I’m not the only one to think this, nor is Enda’s father. A survey this summer stated that 90 per cent of people in Northern Ireland believed that those who kill while drunk or under the influence of drugs should be charged with manslaughter. That’s an overwhelming number so there’s an obvious scope for change.
Our current sentences just don’t provide enough of a deterrent. From what I can gather, judges work from the maximum punishment and then reduce that based on things like the offender showing remorse or entering a guilty plea at an early stage. Maybe it shouldn’t be that way. Maybe it should be based on actual fact, like the fact you knew you would be over the limit as you got into the driver’s seat and the fact you knew that what you were doing was against the law as you turned on the ignition. A standard sentence that is sufficiently harsh for the taking of another life or potential thereof. There would have to be serious mitigating circumstances to excuse those actions.
Three and a half years is nothing for taking the life of an 18-year-old. Three and a half years of restriction on their liberty may deter the majority from drink driving but not all, and it’s all that need to be targeted. Those that would risk three and a half years are likely to be those who are the most dangerous. They aren’t the ones who are driving after drinking a glass of wine that accompanied their dinner. They are the ones who feel perfectly fine the morning after and are genuinely shocked to find they’re over the limit. They’re the ones who think it is their given right to drive whenever they feel like it. They’re the ones who don’t see a tonne and a half of metal as the potential killing machine that it is. They’re the ones who think they’re above the law because they think they know better.
A part of me is scared that the introduction of taxi meters is going to contribute to an increase in drink driving. Prior, I used to be able to get to Lisbellaw from a night out for £7. Now I need at least a tenner even if the traffic lights are in my favour. In a drunken haze, you may prefer to spend that money on three more pints rather than a taxi and the hassle of collecting the car the next day. The increased cost of getting home is going to see people more willing to risk it. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong but I’ll hold ultimate judgement until I see the statistics.
Early statistics however have shown that 72 people have been caught drink driving in the first week of the winter campaign for this year, and that’s in the first week of December, before the Christmas nights out have properly started. Given that numbers have increased year on year, it’s time something was done. Get all the officers that can be spared out into the car parks with their little breathalysers machines to stop people from even getting into that driving seat. Set up checkpoints on back roads as well as main roads because criminals will do anything they can to flaunt the law. Catch them before they catch someone innocent. I genuinely don’t think I could live with myself if my selfish actions had negatively affected the life of another person so I struggle to understand how anyone else could.
At this Christmas time and at any other point in the year, if you find yourself having to ask if you’re okay to drive, then don’t take the risk. You and everyone around you has too much to lose. Take a taxi or walk to where you need to be. Nothing is worth an empty chair around the table this Christmas.