Drink-drive offenders may be alcoholics

Press, 24 May 1977, Page 26

Drink-drive offenders may be alcoholics

PA Dunedin Most persons repeatedly convicted of drinking and driving offences may be alcoholics without realising it, according to a Dunedin study. Seventy-eight per cent of a random sample of Dunedin drivers convicted of drinking and driving offences were considered to have an alchol problem, the study found. The finding was contained in the first report of the course for impaired drivers, which has been running in Dunedin since last October. The "extremely high” figure was disturbing said the report. The study found that most of the 42 persons who had completed the course so far had multiple problems relating to alcohol.

“Drinking and driving does not apoear to be an isolated problem — a lot

of these drivers have been to court before for other alcohol-related offences,” said Miss Mary Anderson, a clinical psychologist who is supervising the course. The course is the first full-scale attempt in New Zealand to provide a community counter-measure to drinking-driver problems. The experimental programme is intended to improve the knowledge of participants about alcohol and driving and to encourage them to examine and accept responsibility for their own drinking and driving behaviour. The courts refer a random selection of people convicted of drunken driving to the course. Participants are expected to attend the course of lectures, films, discussions, and tests one evening a week for seven weeks. Of the total group of drivers convicted for drinking and driving offences, 76 per cent were under 30 years of age,

said the report. All the drivers on the course so far have been men. The report suggested that fostering more acceptable and appropriate drinking habits was a more promising approach for these drivers than attempting to make them give up alcohol completely. The drinking and driving problem was predominantly a male one; and New Zealanders seemed to regard the practice of drinking and driving as normal behaviour, the report said. Both practices were “firmly embedded” in the life-style of the country. It was not possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the course at this stage, Miss Anderson said. In about a year, an attempt would be made to compare the drinking and driving behaviour of those who had been through the course with a control group of those who had not, she said.