Editorial: Parents must set example

Hands on hearts, people over the age of 15. Who amongst you has not got behind the wheel of a car under the influence of alcohol or drugs? Who amongst you has not got into a car with a driver you know is under the influence of alcohol or drugs?
When I got my full licence aged 15, weekend nights in mid-70s Hawke's Bay were like the wild west. Many men drove home from clubs under the influence of "a few jugs". Mostly they drove slowly and carefully, but it was noted by the younger generation. Some of the more intoxicated, in top societal positions, became whispered stories - "picked up by the cops on his way home from the golf club and driven home again". Laughter followed - not court action.
Later on those nights sons drove "old bombs" at top speed to parties all across this province, carrying other people's sons and daughters. Nobody talked about a sober driver. Police sometimes intervened - took keys, made the driver and his passengers walk home. "Getting done" was a rare event.
For context: just two years before I got my licence, 843 people died on New Zealand's roads - the worst annual road toll of all time.
In the 1980s "Disqualified Driver" T-shirts were everywhere. It was all a bit of a laugh. But as my generation grew into jobs there was change. The authorities got serious. There was no escaping the message: "If you drink and drive you're a bloody idiot!" One believed the next generation would be better than the last - the arrival of Students Against Driving Drunk (SADD) adding to that belief. And the road toll came down.
In recent years, however, the fall has not continued, and drink-driving remains one of our society's more perplexing problems. Headlines on the front page of Hawke's Bay Today over the previous seven editions -"Learner jailed for drunk smash", "Crash victim's father backs new road rules", "Victim sounds drink-drive warning", and "Mother tells of family's nightmare" - confirm that.
The Government continues to tweak legislation, with much focus on young people driving increasingly powerful cars continuing to fail to understand the danger they put themselves and others in. This week a "Hawke's Bay Youth Alcohol Expo - helping to make safe decisions around drink driving" provided another hard-hitting message to Year 11 students - the year many of us get our licence. It's a fact that on Bay roads drivers aged under 20 make up 24 per cent of the drink-driver offender statistics. In a recent five-year period (2005-2009) 25 per cent of injury crashes in Napier and Hastings involved drivers aged 15-19, which resulted in 23 deaths and nearly 800 injuries. In 81 per cent of these crashes the young driver was at fault.
But what responsibility should be apportioned to the 76 per cent of drink driver offenders above that threshold? A number which suggests that our most inexperienced drivers are still not supported by the society they live in, the role models they associate with. And it is parents who must lead. Parents who say "no, not ever" to drink driving - even if their past life did not allow them to say "I haven't" to one or both of my first two questions. No child should see their father or mother drunk at the wheel. Otherwise in the future it is likely they will answer "I have" to one of my first two questions, and in doing so admit to being part of what is a continuing national disgrace ... and tragedy.