The publication comes at a time when we are already in the festive season mood, when many drunken driving cases usually go up, as excited drivers show off with their wheels and a can of beer on one hand a cell-phone, cash and girls. To say the statistics released by the Ministry is shocking would be an under-statement. For a country with a long history of road mishaps taking more lives than HIV AIDS, it is disappointing that the drunken driving trends, in spite of stringent measures taken over the last couple of years, continue to spiral out of control. There have been several deliberate and conceited efforts to limit alcohol consumption and drunken driving such as the introduction of steeper traffic fines, raising the alcohol levy, increasing police presence on the roads, reducing hours of operations of bras and bottle-stores and clubs.
What is even more saddening is the fact that often when these stubborn drivers are engaging in their drinking and driving sprees, the are usually carrying more lives in their drunk driven vehicles, resulting in high possibilities of fatalities as we have come to experience in recent days. Drunkenen driving is a bad unwelcome habit that needs to be discouraged by any means necessary including the naming and shaming that was done last week on the Daily News. Perhaps it would serve us well if the naming and shaming is also extended to the private newspapers so that a wider audience could read about these irresponsible drunkards who do not care about the safety of other road users.
