Durban – A road safety NGO has implored motorists to drive carefully and not to cause death and destruction on South Africa’s roads this festive season.
South Africans Against Drunk Driving in its plea also called for “booze-free” roads this festive season.
NGO founder Caro Smit said her heart was heavy as everyone was preparing for Christmas, but there would be an empty place at her Christmas table as her son, Chad was 23 when he was killed by a driver that had been drinking.
“Please remember all the people who have lost loved ones and don’t be responsible for killing someone. It takes very little alcohol to affect your driving ability.”
Smit shared some hints for the festive season:
- If you are going to drink don’t drive.
- Or if you have had a big party the night before, make sure that you are sober the next day.
“You can buy alcohol breathalysers from companies such as Alcohol.co.za, and just learn the rules about the elimination rates of alcohol. If you drink five 750ml bottles of beer it will take you 20 hours before you are sober.
“Nothing will take that alcohol out of your body, except time. If you drink a bottle of brandy or whiskey it’s going to take you 32 hours before you are sober.”
- Coffee doesn’t sober you up, all it does is make you wide awake drunk.
- Buckle up, as this would save lives should a drunk driver hit your vehicle. You and your passengers can be flung out of the car and killed.
- Do not to speed, the slower one drives, the safer you will be. Be careful how you overtake and only do so when it was safe.
- Don’t use your mobile phones when you are driving even if they are hands-free, because that is distracted driving and you need to keep your wits about you at this time of the year when other people might be driving recklessly.
- Make sure that your car is roadworthy.
“If you have tyres that are worn and you are speeding, the tyres heat up and they can burst causing the car to roll and that’s where we see people flung out of vehicles if they are not buckled up.
“Make sure that you have a good holiday and you are not mourning the loss of somebody or spending your time in jail because you have killed somebody or you are sitting with a heavy conscious because you have killed somebody or severely injured somebody,” Smit said.
“Even if you got away with it and you are not charged, even if there’s a poor investigation done and you got away on a technicality, you need to check your conscience. You will know you might have killed a loved one and pushed a family into poverty or you might have caused a mother, a brother or a sister to be without their loved ones sitting at the Christmas table mourning their loss,” she added.
Daily News