Times ad on drink- driving is insulting

Sir,
 
I refer to an advertisement run by your newspaper that read ‘drinking and driving equals absolute stupidity’ and which prompted me to write this letter.

I believe that this statement is an insult to the citizens who drink responsibly.
My understanding is that the law does not state that drinking and driving is prohibited – it limits the drinker to no more than 0.38 ml/l (alcohol/liter of blood) in Swaziland. In some countries this figure is much higher while in others it is much lower, depending on what the lawmakers decide.

Religion

Referring to a group of people as stupid (absolutely) may be viewed as an insult. I have personally likened this to hate speech – with the exclusion of religion, ethnicity and race in the definition of hate speech. To some of us, drinking is a way of socialising.

We would generally have to drive away from our homes to meet friends, relatives, business associates etc. Sponsoring an ad that insults some people is not what one would expect from a newspaper which has promoted liberal thinking and democratic values.
 That said, I would like to state that it requires a fair amount of intelligence and intellect to observe that the strict laws on drink-driving and its enforcement thereof are primarily meant to promote fear and that characterises a dictatorship.

Intense

Why is South Africa (with an intense road network where alertness on the road is an imperative – imagine a pile-up that can result from the mistake of one driver on a freeway or highway in central Johannesburg or Cape Town during the rush hour) lax – 0.5 ml/l compared to ‘rural’ Swaziland.

Drink-driving limits of countries of a similar category as Swaziland in terms of traffic and road infrastructure (i.e. Namibia (0.7), Botswana (0.8) and Lesotho (1.0)) have less restriction as expected. Of course, the limits on the amounts of permissible alcohol in the blood of a driver is guided by such realities

 I wish not to expand and am happy if I have not insulted anyone.

Sala Besho

Dear Sala Besho,

I am afraid that you have your facts wrong on the alcohol limits; in fact, Swaziland has one of the highest (most lenient) alcohol limits. The BLOOD alcohol limit for Swaziland and Namibia is 0.08 g/100ml, for South Africa and Botswana it is 0.05g/100ml, while for Lesotho it is a whopping 0.1 g/100ml.

The problem is that the police in Swaziland do not use blood tests, which is the only conclusive way to determine a person’s alcohol content. Instead they use the BREATH alcohol limit which is a different thing entirely. While Swaziland’s stands at 0.38mg/l, by comparison South Africa’s is 0.24mg/l – significantly lower.

The ‘Absolute stupidity’ campaign is a play on the name of the vodka named Absolut and is in fact part of the Absolut brand’s campaign against drink-driving. What is beyond a doubt is that any alcohol in the body makes a biological change (otherwise people wouldn’t drink in the first place) and part of this change that makes you feel better about yourself involves slower reflexes and an impaired sense of judgement. Thus, drinking and operating heavy machinery, such as a vehicle, is not the intelligent choice.

While this publication has no problem with drinking, per se, or driving, the two together are a curse upon our roads which contribute to at least 50 per cent of the road accidents, according to the police, and a large proportion of the number of deaths on the road, maybe most of them. This makes every drink-driver a potential killer. So, please, enjoy your drinking. Just don’t do it before driving.

 Editor

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