Papakura and Franklin join forces on drinking and driving

Road safety staff in Papakura and Franklin are asking motorists in both districts a question: what will it take for people who drink and drive to change their ways?

A new, hard-hitting awareness campaign is reminding motorists of the risks they face if they drink and drive, and reminding the community that the drink-driving road toll affects everyone, not just the individual.

Long hot summer days, socialising after work or at weekends and that enduring holiday feeling can entice people to have “just one drink”, creating unnecessary risks for themselves and other road users.

The new campaign is run jointly across Papakura and Franklin districts and will raise awareness that the drink-driving issue is relevant right through the summer period and beyond. Billboards and bar mats featuring a variety of messages will prompt people to change their behaviour.

Though people may see the Christmas period as the major focus because of the national publicity given to the issue and the city-wide checkpoint campaigns carried out by Police, road safety staff point out that the social summer weeks after Christmas have their own dangers.

“Christmas may be behind us but this is a very social time of year, which means there are still many occasions where people could be tempted to drink and drive. There’s an attitude that “a drink or two never hurt anyone, I’ll be okay”. We are saying that’s wrong,” says Papakura Road Safety Project Officer Donna Dick.

In the past, Papakura District Council and Franklin District Council have run road safety awareness campaigns in the pre-Christmas period, but this year they have launched a joint reminder campaign aimed at the January - February period to help keep people aware of their responsibilities.

The campaign also asks the community as a whole to actively discourage drink-driving.

“We want friends, family, even neighbours to be thinking about the harm people can cause when they go out on the roads under the influence of alcohol. Every person’s tolerance to drinking is different, and even relatively small amounts of alcohol affect judgement and reaction time, creating the potential for harm when you decide to drive. We can all help to reduce the harm done by the people in our communities who drink and drive.”