Despite the fact that we’re the 12th most populous urban area in Canada, Victoria is a relatively small community, both in terms of geography and population. In a community such as ours, when tragedy occurs, it touches most of us.
Last weekend, a 20-year-old Saanich woman was killed in a car crash in downtown Victoria; the driver of the car survived and was taken to hospital. Police say that alcohol and high speeds contributed to the accident.
Because our community is a relatively small one, I was saddened but not surprised when my roommate came home the other day and mentioned that she had been talking to a person who knew the young woman. These kinds of connections are common; we’re rarely separated from each other by more than a few degrees in our city.
Alas, hers was not the first car crash death this year; 2014 has seen more than its fair share of vehicle-related deaths, alcohol or no.
When something tragic happens in our community, we know that the people involved probably went to high school with someone we knew, or that the place the crash occurred is a spot our friends walk past every day. This understanding seems to highlight the arbitrariness of these accidents.
There’s an element of randomness in any accident, but traffic crashes feel particularly arbitrary. Though myriads of factors are involved, the trigger is often simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or making a tiny mistake.
This is one of the reasons young people are at much higher risk of becoming involved in car crashes, or indeed any type of accident, because they don’t have the experience to contextualize and reassess a potentially dangerous decision.
When it comes to drinking and driving especially, educating young people about its dangers is a crucial first step — but what are steps two and three? I remember at my high school, we had police officers come in and talk to us about how dangerous drinking and driving was, as well as overall road safety for new drivers, but while this was a great message, it didn’t really give us any tools for moving forward.
Even as an adult, I often used to find myself thinking: “Wow, wouldn’t it just be easier if we all had mini-breathalyzers? Then we’d just know, you know?”
Recently, the Centre for Addictions Research of B.C. at the University of Victoria has developed a nifty little app called “Good to Go?” which can be downloaded on a smartphone free through iTunes. It helps young people assess impairments, but it also gives them a “clearer sense of the personal and social responsibilities that go along with the privilege of driving.” It forces a person to stop and assess their options, and often, just the act of sitting still and thinking critically about your behaviour for 15 seconds is enough to promote better decision-making.
As a teen who didn’t drink and had more than her fair share of self-confidence, I had no problem with setting firm boundaries when it came to alcohol, and policing them with brutal rigidity (often to my friends’ frustration, if I remember correctly).
When I became an adult, however, and began drinking and partying with more regularity, my zero-tolerance attitude toward any kind of alcohol-fuelled shenanigans was no longer a feasible strategy.
This isn’t to say that there are grey zones when it comes to drinking and driving, but rather that young people need tools and strategies to help them enforce the good decisions they want to make.
That’s why this app — and the mentality behind it — is so wonderful. The focus is on giving young people tools and strategies in addition to hammering home a “don’t drink and drive” message. And, I hope, they will grow up to be the kinds of adults who make sensible, informed decisions.
That’s the thing about drinking and driving in the end: Though the focus is (and should be) on educating young people about its dangers, the people in my life who I’ve known to have driven drunk are all adults, and absolutely should have known better.
In a community where we’re only a few degrees removed from everyone else, keeping our children safe is the best way to make sure that we’re all safe.
