28% of road fatalities in Vic are drink driving related

February 09, 2010
Media Centre

Recent studies indicate that the message about drinking and driving is still not getting through to the public. Increased police RBT’s and booze bust campaigns are continuing to catch an alarming number of people taking such risks.

See figure A. Below:

28% of all drivers and motorcyclists killed on Victoria’s roads over the last year were 0.05 g/100ml or over. The majority of drivers are heavily intoxicated, registering more than three times over the legal limit.

You can see that in the span of over twenty years, the numbers of fatalities resulting from drinking and driving have not dropped significantly.

In 2008, Victoria Police breath tested 1.42 million drivers and riders from Booze Bus operations. Around 5,700 drivers and riders were caught with an illegal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) over this period.

These figures are alarming, more so, they are only indicative of one state.

The effects of drink driving are devastating for everyone concerned. The statistics above do not reflect the indirect victims of drink driving – the families and loved ones of these victims.

• For example, in Victoria, over 28% of people killed in road fatalities die as a direct result of drinking and driving. If 50 people drink and drive then cause an accident, an average of 350 additional lives are indirectly affected. This includes victims who are injured in the wake of the accident, family members and friends of the victims, the community, and the treating emergency workers at the scene of the accident.

Consider the often forgotten victims, the ones who survive forced to live with devastating after-effects and trauma for the remainder of their lives. These victims, who may be permanently disabled, put an unbearable burden onto their families and loved ones, not to mention, the cost of ongoing medical treatment and loss of income. Quite simply, all of these devastating scenarios and statistics can easily be avoided.

Whilst drink driving is at the forefront of the crisis, other factors, such as alcohol-related violence and work-place safety need to be addressed. The media has been flushed with continuous stories of alcohol-fuelled violence, both in the streets and domestically. In the work place, it is common for accidents to occur – vehicular and non-vehicular. This is a taboo subject and grey area to address. Many employers feel it is an invasion of privacy to breathalyse their workers, or imply that an incident or accident is a direct result of drinking. How many of these unfortunate happenings can be avoided if everyone had access to means of a morning breath test prior to beginning the workday? You would have to reason that most of these work-related accidents would be abolished.

What can we do to stop this epidemic?

There is no simple solution to put an end to all incidents of drink driving, but there is an amazingly easy and accessible solution to help people behave more responsibly. Drinking Mate is a company that retails and wholesales quality and reliable alcohol breathalyzers that are accurate and affordable. Most people do not realize that you can now own your own personal testing device, nor do they think they can afford one. Drinking Mate is a company passionate about raising awareness of the effects of drink driving and proving how easy it is to ensure that people do not add to these unfortunate statistics.

Based on their own research, Drinking Mate has found that the public who wish to drink, but be able to drive home, were, generally, disillusioned with the lack of public testing devices. They also found that people were frustrated because they believed the only way to tell if they were over the limit, was to be caught and tested by the Police.

Additional studies have shown that people fool themselves into believing they are sober enough to drive after a sufficient amount of sleep. Two recent newspaper articles proved this theory wrong. In the Sun Herald, two of out of three people tested, all having consumed a meal and ceased drinking at 2:30am, still blew above the legal limit when tested at 9am the following morning.

The team at Drinking Mate would like to make their vision and purpose public. They feel that a story highlighting drink driving and its devastating effects, is a message that needs to be heard, repeatedly, until this message sinks in. The public needs to be aware that there are affordable and accurate devices, which Drinking Mate can supply, to ensure responsible drinking.

We want to be a part of the solution, and any publicity raising awareness and touting our cause will help to make this solution an attainable reality, and in turn, increase public safety.

For more information, please contact, Ahmed Hassan, Company Director: 0415-773-743

7 Comments for this entry

Hypnotism, March 9th, 2010 on 1:52 am

Many thanks for your can be helpful!
Drink driving lawyer, April 7th, 2010 on 7:56 pm

Its really alarming to know that 28% of road accidents are caused by drink driving and its the reason why Australian government are working on the new law to fight against this. If we are drunk its better to hire a taxi cab to ensure our safety on the road.
opthamologist, January 1st, 2011 on 7:55 am

found your site on del.icio.us today and really liked it.. i bookmarked it and will be back to check it out some more later
inheritance, January 21st, 2011 on 2:23 am

Great information! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now. Thanks!
Vicky Tui, April 2nd, 2011 on 12:12 pm

Hi I was just wondering if you could give me the references for your drink driving statistics as I am doing a research paper on drink driving. Much appreciated. Thankyou

Cheers

Vicky
Now-Informed-Person, June 7th, 2011 on 11:53 am

thankyou so much for this website, I am now very educated!
ocavia2, September 4th, 2011 on 10:07 pm

information you write it very clean. I’m very lucky to get this information from you.|very good information you write it very clean. I’m very lucky to get