The Daily Star - Campaigns seek to deter drinking and driving, December 31st 2011

By Olivia Alabaster

BEIRUT: Charities are warning young Lebanese not to drink and drive over New Year’s, a period often marked by a sharp increase in road accidents.

Two nongovernmental organizations, Skoun and Kunhadi, are running campaigns over the festive season to discourage drinking and driving.

Kunhadi, the youth road safety charity, set up by the friends and family of a young man who died in an accident, has launched a poster and TV ad campaign, which features the message, “On New Year’s Eve, the countdown for your parents is much longer. Take a cab.”

The emotive video shows a worried mother waiting at home for her child as the minutes tick slowly by, the implication being that her son or daughter, not having waited for a cab, is never coming home.

The message of the organization, as stated on its website, is that “drink driving should be regarded as socially unacceptable, we need to change people’s attitudes to speeding, driving while fatigued and not wearing seat belts.”

Lebanon has a very high rate of road traffic accidents, with nearly 11,000 in 2010 and already over 10,100 recorded this year, according to Kunhadi. The NGO’s latest New Year’s Eve statistics, from 2008, show that there were 25 accidents that evening, accounting for 35 casualties Eleven were drink-driving related.

The campaign run by drugs awareness NGO Skoun has involved distributing information on drink driving to 40 different bars in Hamra, Gemmayzeh and Monnot in Beirut, with a poster on the front door and bathroom doors of each establishment.

Under the slogan, “Do drink but don’t drive: be safe this holiday season,” Skoun’s campaign acknowledges that many young Lebanese will choose to drink over the weekend, but urges them to exercise restraint, either by limiting their intake, designating a driver among friends or taking a cab home.

Raya Haidar, youth coordinator in the prevention department at Skoun, said that the NGO launched a holiday campaign as “we know people tend to drink more excessively, and more frequently” during this time of year.

In a news conference Friday, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel also mentioned the issue, warning against drink driving ahead of the New Year.

He also said that, in an effort to slow drivers down this weekend, additional checkpoints were being set up at various points around the country.

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