In the UK the laws against drink driving are very strict. If you are found to be over the limit, you lose your licence and that?s the end of it. People therefore take the matter seriously. For many years now it has been the habit, when a couple goes to a party or a dinner, for one partner to drink and the other to abstain. Some people take it in turns - one partner this week, the other the next - if both of them drink. It?s just a question of deciding, of accepting your responsibilities. And keeping your driving licence?

In Mauritius where attitudes to drinking are still very casual and the laws less severe [although tougher penalties have been promised] a ?macho? attitude often rules at the wheel. A man may feel ?diminished? if he can?t drive his car ? and his partner and his family - home after a wedding or a party. And the more the person has had to drink, the more difficult it may be to dissuade him! Even if his wife is a perfectly good driver and is completely sober he may still insist on taking the wheel ?with catastrophic consequences. Wives and girl-friends should discuss the problem with their men in a cool-headed way ?at breakfast time perhaps? and work out contingency plans for such situations.

People who drink and drive should face this question: how would I feel if my partner/best friend/child died or was handicapped for life as a result of me having one drink too many? Or the partner/best friend/child of the person in that oncoming car? So much suffering that could be avoided?

Our cars are so familiar, friendly and useful to us that we get into them each morning without thinking that they are in reality dangerous weapons! Large, heavy masses of metal moving through the air at more or less high speeds, they are capable of mass destruction! And all the more so in the hands of a drunken driver?