Years ago, before seat-belt legislation was a twinkle in the eyes of Maltese legislators and when breathalyser testing was inconceivable, I took my first trip to North America to attend a family wedding. Needless to say, in addition to the big day, there were a number of other alcohol-fuelled festivities.

At all of these, I vividly remember being struck by something which, at the time, I definitely thought OTT – their no-nonsense commitment never to drink and drive. If you had pledged or designated yourself driver for the evening, you simply would not think to drink. Not a sip.

Coming from a last-one-for-the-road sort of country with no drink-driving laws in place, I was amazed at how serious they were in their resolve. Moreover, I became aware for the first time of belonging to a culture where there was – and remains – no social disapproval attached to drink-driving, let alone all the attendant risks one is expected and almost encouraged to take – at the ‘more serious’ risk (sic) of being labelled a party-pooper!

Unlike the US and other serious European countries, Malta, I now see, is a backward, irresponsible and casual country where the selfish ‘right’ to a good time is paramount and for which it is definitely worth risking your own life and possibly somebody else’s.

These risks aren’t just the preserve of the young and immature – that hormonal skateboarding generation of ‘boys’ who, even in adulthood, continue to think they are immune and immortal.

We’re all guilty in some shape or form. Responsible adults, parents and professionals in late middle-age have been known to polish off half a bottle of wine, and sometimes more, before getting behind the wheel. With few exceptions, everyone reading this, in possession of a driving licence, has very probably driven when not entirely sober and in control of their natural reflexes.

Once in a while, our game of Russian roulette goes horribly wrong and we don’t live to tell the tale. Statistically, it is the young who are more susceptible and men more than women. No two individuals are alike and personality traits will always affect one’s choice of speed, more so when combined with (copious amounts) of alcohol. But, by and large, with age does come a certain maturity in knowing not to tear through the streets, particularly when one has had a bit to drink and is carrying other passengers.

Had we a ruthless enforcement system in place, where inebriated drivers lost their licences indefinitely and imprisonment was mandatory, those boys would have been raised in a completely different culture

On New Year’s Day Malta woke to the horrifying news that a car accident had claimed the life of recent graduate, 22-year-old Matt Meilak, earlier that morning. Within hours, the bone-deep grief of one nation was palpable and swiftly transmitted on all social network sites. My own reaction surprised me – for despite it being the first fatality of the year, it is certainly not the first of its kind.

And yet, there I was, shellshocked, incensed and devastated, struggling to find the words to express my innermost condolences to an inconsolable family who would never recover from this life-shattering, irreparable tragedy.

My thoughts ping-ponged back and forth as I tried to put myself in the shoes of both sets of parents – the anguished couple who had just lost their son, and then the parents whose son would soon be facing involuntary homicide charges. As a parent of a son, who could, one day, so easily find himself in either seat – the driver’s or rear passenger’s, on his own road to self-destruction – I experienced a helplessness and outrage like never before.

Malta has cleaned up its act in many other respects – illegal parking, to name just one. Today people simply don’t go there, or if they do, they are not let off the hook and their licences not renewed until they have paid their dues. In short, when the State decides to clamp down on something, it does so mercilessly, with the full support and majesty of the justice system.

It’s not just drugs which are visited harshly. Certain contraventions – maintenance infractions, for instance – will immediately land you in jail, while if you are caught giving or selling drugs (to someone who is alive and who wants to buy them), you are immediately detained with no easy chance of landing bail. After that, you’re looking at anything between six months and life-imprisonment.

For some inexplicable reason, however, when someone actually dies, as a result of your alcohol or drug induced driving, your chances of ever seeing the inside of a jail are remote. For the most part, you are immediately released and allowed to resume life as usual. Which you never can, whether you are eventually acquitted or found guilty.

That’s another tragedy. And yet, I find this ‘judicial casualness’ to be another form of contributory negligence which has done nothing to dissuade drink-driving.

The driver is ultimately a victim – victim of a culture which somehow thinks that these are risks which can be taken and a system that has closed an eye to this state of affairs. Had we a ruthless enforcement system in place, where inebriated drivers lost their licences indefinitely and imprisonment was mandatory, those boys would have been raised in a completely different culture and one might still have had the rest of his life ahead of him.

He is gone forever while the survivors will be scarred permanently – physically and emotionally – none more so than the driver. Regardless of whether they were all tanked up and intoxicated, it’s the person who gets behind the wheel who has to carry the ultimate responsibility, legally and otherwise.

Remember that the next time you’re about to take that risk.

The State and the courts are there to protect us from ourselves. Which is why we’re made to wear seat-belts and are heavily punished if we cultivate cannabis. But when somebody dies because of recklessness fuelled by alcohol and/or drugs, the courts suddenly lose their mojo and become coy, toothless and unrecognisable. Something doesn’t add up.

michelaspiteri@gmail.com

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