Drinking Kills Driving Skills

Everyone knows that I have my Ls and that I'm very proud of them. Well, at least all the people who read this blog know that. Which is very few, but that's ok... we're like the Glee club... we'll get popular soon... I don't know how to end this line of thought...

OK.

It's all really exciting at first. I mean, driving is pretty cool. And I love filling out my logbook, and writing out the odometer reading, and being a law abiding citizen.

But the things is, after a while, i.e. 25 hours of driving, its get a tad boring to go with your parents all the time, hissing instructions in your ear. And I'm not allowed to play music, because my Dad says so, and I have go at at least 5 km below the speed limit, and obviously never over 80. So I'm quite frustrated, and it's pretty tense, and driving is actually quite hard...

Which is why of course now I can't wait to get my Ps. Two /Three years ago you only needed to do 50 hours as a learner before you could get your Ps. And now they've bumped that up to 120 hours. So I'm feeling quite frustrated and everything.

But that just reminds me of something my Dad keeps saying as we drive around:
"You're behind the wheel of a killing machine! This is not for entertainment. We are NOT going to play any music."

And although I let out an involuntary snort, I know he isn't being paranoid.

In the news just the day before was a story about a 21 year old boy, who was drunk, and had stolen some car, along with his 18-year-old girlfriend and was being chased by the police. He sped through one red light and the police was forced to stop because of the incoming traffic. Unaware that the police had stopped chasing him, he sped through another red light.

At that intersection, his car collided with another car, containing a family of five. Three of the passengers died instantly. The 21-year-old was taken to hospital, and he died there. The girl who was with him was severely injured, and she can't walk anymore.

Was it worth it? That few minutes of thrill?

Yeah everyone hears about this kind of thing all the time. There are plenty of cases. But really, I'm glad the compulsory learner hours have been more than doubled. No, it might not be able to prevent some reckless lunatic from speeding through the streets, but it'll help to discipline the P-platers - gain more awareness as an L driver before you go independently.

Moral of the story? Probably just my dad's cliched advice: "You are behind the wheel of a KILLER MACHINE."