The provincial government has laid down the law for young drivers – starting this month, drivers aged 21 and under, no matter what level of driver’s licence they have, must have a blood alcohol content (BAC) of zero.
The reasons are obvious – young drivers account for more than their fair share of collisions involving alcohol. Police say the peak ages for drinking and driving collisions are 19, 20 and 21. Requiring people who are both inexperienced drivers and drinkers to be 100 per cent sober when they get behind the wheel seems a logical way to protect them, and everyone else on the highway.
The legislation also applies to novice drivers of any age under the province’s graduated licencing system. Nevertheless, there will undoubtedly be those who say the law is discriminatory. If a person is old enough to get married without parental consent, or join the armed forces, surely he should be able to have a drink without risking losing his licence.
There will also be those who state quite correctly that the most troublesome impaired drivers are not necessarily the youngsters. While a small minority of them might pile into someone’s junker with five friends and a case of beer, and cruise the countryside smashing mailboxes, most have wholeheartedly embraced the concept of the designated driver, calling a sober friend for a ride, or sleeping over. Some of their parents, on the other hand, have not. Our local courts are all too familiar with middle-aged repeat offenders, too many of whom keep driving without licence or insurance after impaired driving convictions.
These are the guys (and gals) who came of age when impaired driving was not regarded as potentially deadly criminal behaviour, but as youthful high spirits that got a little out of hand. Penalties reflected the view that “kids will be kids.” Getting a small fine and a good talking-to for being drunk and driving the old man’s car into a ditch used to be almost a rite of passage.
That was then, this is now. Driving while drunk has become socially unacceptable. Ontario has some of the strictest impaired driving legislation in the world. The latest change is only one in a continuing series of increased penalties aimed at getting drunk drivers off the road.
Penalties for impaired driving have had an impact on the drinking behaviour of most of us. Since the province implemented three-day licence suspensions for those whose BAC registered in the “warn” range (.05-.08), an increasing number of us refuse to touch any alcohol at all before driving. Depending on our size, gender and the amount of food we have consumed, even the “safe” two beers could be too much. The only safe amount of alcohol for drivers is none.
But there is a certain group that will never get the message. To them, driving around three sheets in the wind is what they have been doing since they were old enough to get behind the wheel, and what they will continue doing until the day they die – or land behind bars.
It seems no matter how severe the penalty, they keep driving drunk. Take away their licence, they will drive without it. Take away their car, they will drive the wife’s car, or borrow one from a friend. Throw them in jail, they will celebrate their release by having a beer or twelve and driving home.
The only way to stop this behavior may well be to get to people before they have he chance to develop bad habits behind the wheel. If there were a way to totally separate drinking from driving... something like demanding novice drivers have a blood alcohol level of zero... Point made.
The question of whether it is safer to be in the vicinity of a teenaged driver who has consumed two beers, or eight super-caffeinated energy drinks, has yet to be explored.