Drivers in Japan plied with alcohol to show drink

Initiative in Chikushino honours three children killed by drink-driver, with motorists learning first-hand how badly alcohol makes you drive

Police and driving instructors in Japan have adopted an unorthodox approach to road safety in the hope of reducing incidences of drink-driving – by allowing drivers to consume alcohol before getting behind the wheel.

Chikushino driving school in the south-western city of Fukuoka recently began offering controlled drink-driving experiences as part of a police campaign to convince “overconfident” motorists never to drink and drive.

The initiative was launched around the 17th anniversary of the deaths of three children from the city – two boys aged four and three, and their one-year-old sister – who died when their family car was struck by a municipal government employee who was driving under the influence of alcohol.

Drivers taking part in the recent experiment included two reporters from the Mainichi Shimbun – one who drank and drove, and another who observed her colleague as a sober passenger.

The drivers were first asked to negotiate three sections of road – a slalom, an S-bend and a series of tight curves – while sober. The newspaper reporter, Hyelim Ha, then drank a 350ml can of beer, as well as a cup each of umeshu plum wine and shochu spirit – both mixed with water – over the course of about an hour.

A breathalyser test on Ha detected 0.30mg of alcohol per litre of breath, twice the threshold of 0.15mg, the newspaper said.

Despite having cold hands, a raised heart rate and red face, Ha said she felt able to drive – a sentiment reportedly expressed during questioning by the driver who caused the fatal collision in 2006.

Ha’s confidence was misplaced. Her fellow reporter, Rokuhei Sato, lurched back and forth as Ha repeatedly accelerated and slowed down unnecessarily along a straight section of road. She managed to clear the bollards on the slalom course, but was brought to a halt by the school’s vice head, Shojiro Kubota, before she took on the S-bend.

To Ha’s apparent surprise, Kubota told her she had entered a curve at a higher speed after drinking, and at one point had strayed into the opposite lane.

“Even though [drinking] impairs the skills people need for driving, such as cognitive capacity, judgment and vehicle manoeuvring ability, the driver assumes they are driving safely – that’s the danger of drink-driving,” Kubota said, according to the Mainichi.

Japan’s national police agency says that many drivers who drink and drive without incident develop a sense of invincibility and continue to repeat the same dangerous behaviours.

It cited data showing that the probability that a road traffic accident will involve a death is seven times higher when the driver has drunk alcohol compared with accidents in which the driver is sober.

“We are calling on people to properly manage the risks before drinking, such as not driving to the pub in the first place, on the premise that once they are drunk, they are unable to make normal judgments,” Yoichi Furukawa, deputy chief of the prefectural police’s traffic enforcement division, told the newspaper.