New direction on drink-drive campaign

by GD Fri 29 Jul 2011, 6:38 pm

Herm and Sark do not even have cars on their roads, but this year they are the
focus of Guernsey Police's anti drink-drive campaign.

The summer
campaign will include spot checks on islanders returning on the ferry - to
encourage them not to get in their cars if they have been drinking.

It is
one of a number of ways they are hoping to get the message
across.

Following a recent crash in Guernsey, three people were arrested
in separate incidents in a 24-hour period. Guernsey Police say that is unusual,
but highlights how important it is that they get their anti-drink drive message
across.

Sergeant John Tostevin, from Guernsey Police: "This is a very
serious offence, it can have a serious outcome and it's not accepted. And we're
also asking landlords and people if you know drivers that do daily drink and
drive then give us a ring on Crimestoppers or at the Police Station because
nobody knows who's going to be injured or what will happen as a result of these
people driving."

Guernsey Police are planning to conduct spot checks on
passengers coming in on the ferries from Herm and Sark. They say they are
worried that people have something to drink when they are away and think the
boat trip will sort them out on the way back. Instead, they want people to think
of a more sensible way of getting home.

Police hope the harbourside spot
checks will encourage people to organise how they are getting home before they
arrive in Guernsey, so they are not tempted to get into the car and drive.

But they will also be doing more checks on the island's roads during the
campaign. They work together with the Drug and Alcohol Strategy unit, who say
that education is getting the message across to young people. But they are
concerned about the number of repeat offenders they are seeing - and are hoping
new measures will address that particular problem.

Drug and Alcohol
Strategy Co-ordinator Andrea Nightingale, said: "We're hoping to put in a high
risk offenders scheme, which will hopefully address those situations that we
will be able to sort of monitor them much more closely and we also hope to put
in drink drive education orders which again might be able to actually address
the problems of their lifestyle rather than just focusing on the drink
drive." (from CTv)