1.1 million people random breath tested in 50 days

12/01/2012

The efficiency and effectiveness of random breath testing cannot be doubted.
As part of its summer routine, Victoria Police via their vaunted Booze Bus Teams took control of our roads, barely inconvenienced a safe driver, and RBT’d an astonishing 1.1 million drivers over a 50 day period.
The Melbourne Herald Sun reports this operation – Operation Summer Stay – put 2610 over the limit drivers – off the road. They lost their licenses.
How effective is random breath testing as a societal wide, behaviour changing program?
This is the quote that reveals the answer:

Mr Walshe said the drink-driving test rate of one positive per 432 motorists was poor, but an improvement on one in 332 last year.

This means that VicPol had to test 432 motorists to find and remove 1 drunk from the road.
Last year, they had to test 332, to find and remove their one drunk.
This number, by and large, keeps improving.
DUI drivers are being removed from our roads.
We need to keep up this good work and extend the same model of enforcement and behaviour change to our streets. To our entertainment (drinking) districts employing pedestrian random breath testing.
The model is proven! Beyond doubt.
Meanwhile, this humble site, made the big time in the US, featuring on reddit.com, the social media site, upon which a group called “crippling alcoholism” has been created.
This is the discussion.
Warning, the site link above contains a four letter word.
A lot of obviously distressed and unwell people on this site…
I did my best to engage, prior to being – politely – banned from the group.
I don’t wonder why!
And thanks to producers and Louise Saunders of the ABC Hobart for the spot this morning on the discussion surrounding drunk driving / dui.
It seems that the idea of mandatory RBT machines in all pubs, thus enabling fewer surprises, better education via the audio visual education facilities these machines can bring, and of course, a totally unambiguous, easy to understand, maximum pedestrian BAC Limit, went down well with the listening public.

Mike

Leave a Comment » | ABC, alcohol, Alcohol fuelled violence, alcohol related violence, Binge drinking, drink-walking, Mike Cockburn, pedestrian-08-limit, The-Pedestrian-08-Campaign | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by pedestrian08

Irresponsible Parents prove need for Pedestrian RBT, Fines, Education and Behaviour Change

02/11/2011



Seven out of 10 under-age drinkers caught in the Cornish holiday resort of Newquay were given alcohol by their parents…

BBC Cornwall reports the above, and more:

Most of the teenagers caught drunk and disorderly said they were sent to Cornwall with alcohol [from Parents]…
…although some parents were shocked about their children’s behaviour, others verbally abused officers who confiscated the alcohol…
…one officer was verbally abused by a parent who accused him of stopping her son “having fun”. The teenager was one of four 16-year-olds caught with 64 cans of Special Brew.

The campaign ‘Newquay Safe Partnership’ was formed in 2009 after two teenagers were found at bottom of cliffs in two separate incidents.

There is little doubt that a great percentage of Great Britain’s parents are either unwilling, unable or just too ignorant to responsibly guide their children through the alcohol wars of teenage years.

The Police effort here, is focused on Drunk and Disorderly Offenses.
Is this leaving a problem until it is too late?
Do police have a viable mechanism for the wholesale population wide detection of underage drinking?
Do they consider this, their role as a law and order body?

Where parents fail, the State ‘Nanny’ has to take over.
Pedestrian Random Breath Testing (P-RBT), that includes public transport, allied to heavy fines and heavily publicised educational messages offers the most hope for:

  • Identifying the largest cohort of offenders as quickly and as efficiently as possible; and
  • Changing their behaviour by unambiguously delivering a message about where acceptable behaviour ends

It is Not acceptable for children to fall off cliffs, under trains, and under cars because of Parent Supported Underage Drinking.

Underage drinking is a scourge against the very development of children:

Leave a Comment » | alcohol, Binge drinking, drink-walking, Pedestrian deaths and injuries, Pedestrian Random Breath Testing, The-Pedestrian-08-Campaign | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by pedestrian08

Amy Winehouse dies – another victim of Big Liquor

27/10/2011

Few reports in the media showed any sympathy to the horrible addictions Amy Winehouse suffered.
Who got Amy onto alcohol?
How young was she?
Was it a good idea?
When she purchased her own, were there any warnings about addiction on the bottles?
Were there warnings about cancer on the bottles?
Were there warnings about the toxicity of alcohol – on the bottles?
At clubs, pubs and bars where Amy consumed, were there readily available BAC testing machines, equipped with relevant audio visual messages, displaying a commonsense max BAC level, plus the myriad of health messages needed to responsibly support the serving of alcohol?
Was Amy’s addiction and death due to the saturation marketing campaign for alcohol, which in the UK, amounts to a minimum of (UK)$600 million per year?
Has the UK government done everything it can to minimise the impact and uptake of alcohol?
Has the UK media made money out of the unrelenting ridicule of Amy – whilst taking money for cheap liquor?

Addendum:
The Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs found:

Police found no evidence of illicit drug use in her flat nor were any traces of such drugs found in her body. However, three empty vodka bottles were found next to her bed. Her family believed that she had died of seizure due to alcohol withdrawal. If an alcoholic suddenly stops drinking this can lead to a condition called delirium tremens which can be fatal.

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Posted by pedestrian08

Reaching for responsibility – are we there yet?

17/10/2011

Last Melbourne Cup Day – yes, it is a proclaimed public holiday here – Race Goers crossing Flinders Street from Young & Jackson’s famous bar, were handed a brochure proclaiming a fictitious Point 08 Pedestrian Limit for Race Day and how all Responsible Servers of Alcohol would, quite reasonably, provide an easy mechanism for Users to be able to accurately self test the amount of drug in their system via their Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) Level.
Many of the Users were already so inebriated – at 10 in the morning – that they:

  1. Took the ‘Limit’ literally [they believed it] :) ;
  2. Confessed that they were already ‘over the limit’;
  3. Look really worried – and plainly paused for thought;
  4. Took the brochure.

A year has gone on and as the Melbourne Age reports (Oct 14, 2011) the Melbourne Race Club has moved to doing something like the above hoax, this time for real:

Race-goers at tomorrow’s Caulfield Cup will be able to see whether they exceed the blood-alcohol level as part of a plan to help prevent the racing carnival turning into tragedy.

Two breath-testing devices were today installed in the members pavilion at Caulfield racecourse to give some of the expected crowd of 40,000 the option of getting an alcohol reading before they got behind the wheel.

It is believed the devices, which charge people $2 for a breath test and are claimed by their manufacturers to be as reliable as the ones police use, have never before been installed for a major metropolitan race meeting.


And the motivation?:

Melbourne Racing Club spokesman Josh Rodder said the innovation was a “good cultural thing” to help people know how much alcohol they had consumed.

“It’s good to have just as a guide, so they’ve got an idea how much they’ve had if they are driving, or if they want to avoid having too much to drink,” Mr Rodder said.


And regular readers can see the holes:

  1. Not enough machines for the massive, massive crowd;
  2. No published pedestrian limit (what’s the guideline for a pedestrian?);
  3. No mention of the behaviour changing mechanism of:
    a) Clearly and simply proclaiming a max legal pedestrian limit;
    b) Advertising and marketing the pedestrian limit;
    c) Modify so called RSA guidelines to include a minimum number of BAC Testing machines, that guarantees immediate testing;
    d) Include point of sale audio visual education messages on the BAC Testing machines;
    e) Providing police for Pedestrian Random Breath Testing (RBT).

This more complete plan of law, education, testing and action would truly ensure “a good cultural thing”.

Avoiding incidents as reported in Herald Sun (Oct 16, 2011):

More than 60 people were thrown out of Caulfield Racecourse and three arrested as police cracked down hard on public drunkenness.

However, one woman had to be helped into a wheelchair by two St John Ambulance paramedics and pushed to a first aid station because she was so drunk.

And a fight between a group of young men had to be broken up by police.


By the way, we had our 10,000 visitor, on these pages recently.
Thanks so much for your interest and support.

1 Comment | alcohol, Binge drinking, drink-walking, pedestrian 08 law, Pedestrian deaths and injuries, pedestrian-08-limit, The-Pedestrian-08-Campaign | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by pedestrian08

Mayor Gives Up!

25/02/2011

The Mayor  of Melbourne has given up! See this article here, by Farrah Tomazin, of the Melbourne Age, where he is quoted thus:

[Mr Doyle] questioned whether there was anything more authorities could do to fix what was ultimately a cultural problem.
”We can’t arrest our way out of this,” he said.
”It is cultural, and therefore it’s going to take a lot of time to try to fix this.”

Lord Mayor, Pedestrian 08 is all about effecting cultural change!
Melbourne’s Herald Sun reckons the increase in street violence amounts to:

AT least three extra assaults a week happened in Melbourne’s CBD last year compared with 2009.

Queensland’s Courier Mail (24 Feb) by Xavier La Canna, describes Melbourne’s dilemma thus:
Police can’t stem Melbourne violence

THE number of assaults in Melbourne has risen for the seventh straight year despite a police crackdown on violence in the city.

So after all the funny camera cars, press conferences, photo opportunities, blah blah, 3 more fellow citizens are being assaulted every week.
The Mayor’s efforts will not stop the once per month, alcohol related, one punch homicides.
The Mayor’s ongoing failure to give loud and active support any of the known EFFECTIVE counter measures listed elsewhere on this site is disappointing.
Almost all Melbournians are paying the price for our political leaders constantly running spin over substance with some 85% of Victorians scared of the city after hours.
Others have paid a heavier price via deaths, injuries, illnesses and traumas associated with Big Liquor’s Binge Drinking violence.

Leave a Comment » | alcohol, Lord Mayor, Robert Doyle, The-Pedestrian-08-Campaign | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by pedestrian08

Big Liquor – killing 2.5 million people per annum

16/02/2011

The wrist wringing, the grasping for ineffective, impotent, half-hearted measures by our polling addicted politicians has to end.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that alcohol is killing 2.5 million people per year.

Too few countries use effective policy options to prevent death, disease and injury from alcohol use.

- World Health Organisation

Millions more are harmed or injured.

These deaths, these injuries and harms are occurring every year.

World Health Organisation Report

In Big Liquor’s nirvana, the Russian Federation, 1 in 5 deaths are due to alcohol.

Media identities who insist on not aggressively pursuing Liquor companies, politicians and political parties who continuously champion deflecting, ineffective measures and continuously ignore the short list of policies known to be effective ought to hang their heads in shame.

This is a world wide challenge eclipsing AIDS and tuberculosis.

Alcohol is the world’s third largest risk factor for disease burden; it is the leading risk factor in the Western Pacific and the Americas and the second largest in Europe.

It is against your national interest to permit:

  1. The advertising or promotion of alcohol
  2. Sporting sponsorship by Big Liquor
  3. Extended trading hours
  4. Ubiquitous availability of liquor licences
  5. Minimum drinking ages below the age of 21
  6. Not having a set maximum, on street BAC level for pedestrians – especially in built up areas.
  7. The bribing/fund-raising for politicians and media by Big Liquor

There is a world of difference between prohibition of a drug of addiction and allowing the rampant promotion, advertising and sponsorship by the corporate producers of this toxic, cancer causing drug.

Controlling alcohol is not, nor has it ever been confused with, prohibition.

Any self respecting government should pull out all policy options to minimise the consumption of alcohol and therefore minimise the harms of alcohol.

As the World Health Organisation states:

no [amount of] drinking is entirely safe.

- Shekhar Saxena, the director of WHO’s mental health and substance abuse department

Links:

The WHO report.

The Economist Article

Rasta Livewire

Leave a Comment » | alcohol, Binge drinking, The-Pedestrian-08-Campaign, Underage Drinkers, World Health Organisation | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by pedestrian08

Fight them off with Opera. ABC – Stateline – Reporters forced to leave train for own safety – and on a Tuesday!

20/11/2010

Reporter Kerrie Ritchie and victim of a previous train violence assault Paul Taylor had to leave their Frankston train due to the fear invoked by alcohol fuelled, fellow patrons.
Not all violence on our trains is alcohol related, but the statistics are compelling:
70% of all assaults in Australia have alcohol at their core.

The subject of this story was previously a victim of Frankston Line Train Rock Battering Incident described in the Herald Sun here:

Train Assault Victim

Train Assault Victim Tim Redmond injured 4th June 2010

In the ABC story, Paul tells the story of the terror he and his young son experienced.

They were part of a football crowd returning home.  AFL football events are often Binge Drinking Events…

Paul Taylor and ABC feeling the heat of alcohol related tensions
Some good can come out of this story if the wider ABC starts listening to real people like Paul with these real experiences.

Fight them off with Opera
Quote of the year for me comes from Paul Taylor who said of the violence on trains:

The problem is we tippy-toe around the problem. We play music to scare them off, like you know, ban smoking on the streets of Frankston to move them on. You know we’re just too scared these days to come out and say ‘that’s not tolerated. Stop’. We don’t want do that, we don’t want to confront them, we’d rather fight them off with opera.

Someone please get the word to Paul and Kerrie Ritchie and crew.
A Pedestrian 08 law and program of enforcement would have eliminated every incident he and Kerrie Ritchie and crew filmed for this excellent segment.
Multiple attempts have been made to contact the ABC.
With the exception of ABC South Australia, we haven’t been able to elicit any interest.

Leave a Comment » | Alcohol fuelled violence, alcohol related violence, Binge drinking, The-Pedestrian-08-Campaign | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by pedestrian08

ABC 891 (South Australia) radio interview uploaded

18/11/2010

Thanks so much to the ABC SA for allowing us to hear this interview by Carol Whitlock.
Click here for the Mp3 file

You can also see it at anytime via our Radio Files widget on right hand side of main page.

A link to Carole’s blog.

2 Comments | The-Pedestrian-08-Campaign, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by pedestrian08

Press Release – Mike Cockburn Election Press Release No.2 – L I B campaign launch overshadowed

18/11/2010

The photo below was of our campaign launch on the steps of Parliament House, Melbourne, on Sunday.

Unfortunately, it clashed with the launch of a virtually unknown party – errr, I think their name started with L I B or something – at far more salubrious surroundings.
So, there wasn’t a lot of press about.

Fortunately, the real people were there.
The people were all families of murder victims and other serious crimes.
Gut wrenching stories poured out.
Completely rattled me, I must say.

Campaign Launch at Victims of Crime rally

Campaign Launch at Victims of Crime rally


I followed a mother whose son was brutally kicked to death by a pack of 10 – 12 thugs, who, as I understand things, managed to plead self defence!

The crime would be enough to destroy me, but the next couple of years of trying to obtain some semblance of justice for their boy, was in my estimation, at least double the trauma to these good, good people.

It’s very difficult to take a crowd from such specific experiences to speaking of something, that in contrast, appears general and even esoteric, but that was my task.

I had the support of Noel McNamara OAM, who has devoted a large slice of his life to supporting the families of murder victims, like his own family. What a guy.

After throwing away my prepared speech and shooting from the hip, i was profoundly moved by the support of people who, in their most dire hours, somehow find the space and time to be so giving.

A kindly looking man in the front of the crowd was particularly encouraging and to my eventual distress he was the next speaker.

He too had lost a son to murder.

He was generous in his support of the pedestrian 08 concept. If I got just a tolerance of my opinion, I would have been grateful, really grateful.

I’ve never felt so motivated to continue with this cause. If we can save just one family from this distress.

Why others are not so motivated is beyond me.

I hope to hear from you at some time in the future.

I believe the scones were not to be missed over at the other launch…

Mike

Mike Cockburn
The Pedestrian 08 Campaign

2 Comments | pedestrian-08-limit, The-Pedestrian-08-Campaign | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by pedestrian08

Election news: was on Adelaide Radio with Carol Whitlock – profit over life

11/11/2010

I just finished an interview with Carol and listeners. Thanks for that Carol.
Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | alcohol, Alcohol fuelled violence, alcohol related violence, alcopops, Binge drinking, drink-walking, The-Pedestrian-08-Campaign, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by pedestrian08

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