Request for help with article about anti drink/drug driving campaign 2011

Convicted Driver Insurance

Roland1

New Member
Dear Sirs,

I am a freelance journalist writing a piece about the upcoming campaign against drink-driving and drug-driving, which begins on 1st June.

I would like to take a more personal angle on this story, as I have experience of the devastating effects of drink-driving. Three of my friends died in seperate accidents; all were attributed, in part, to drink or drugs. With that in mind, I request help from this community

I would be very grateful for any comments about drink/drug driving. Further, should there be anyone you are aware of that has an experience that they might share with me, it would strengthen my article greatly.

My email address, should you wish to contact me directly: roliesylvester@gmail.com

My phone number: 07904612162

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Yours sincerely,

Roland Sylvester
 
Roland1 said:
Dear Sirs,

I am a freelance journalist writing a piece about the upcoming campaign against drink-driving and drug-driving, which begins on 1st June.

I would like to take a more personal angle on this story, as I have experience of the devastating effects of drink-driving. Three of my friends died in seperate accidents; all were attributed, in part, to drink or drugs. With that in mind, I request help from this community

I would be very grateful for any comments about drink/drug driving. Further, should there be anyone you are aware of that has an experience that they might share with me, it would strengthen my article greatly.

My email address, should you wish to contact me directly: roliesylvester@gmail.com

My phone number: 07904612162

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Yours sincerely,

Roland Sylvester
Click to expand...

I am not here to help you in your career. Write about how you feel after losing three of your friends. Don`t expect me for one to help you.
 
Dear signman, thank you for replying.

I unfortunately cannot write about how I feel now, as I was only 17 and 18 when these events occurred. My friends were of a similar age - new to the road. I am 26 now and have the opportunity to write about a campaign which aims to reduce the number of accidents on the road.

I think the more we help each other, the less these terrible things will happen. Awareness is the key: many people, especially the young, are not aware of the dangers of drink-driving and drug-driving.

Thank you for your time.

Yours sincerely,

Roland Sylvester
 
I'd like to be able to help, but it's not very clear what you're asking for from the members of this forum.

This forum is jam-packed with comments about drink driving, have you had a read through?
 
Dear new_pedestrian,

Thank you very much for replying, and your suggestion.

Tomorrow 1st June sees the beginning of the annual drink-driving and drug-driving campaign across the UK. I would like to write an article in time with the campaign to highlight the terrible reality of what these two phenomena can do to lives.

With that in mind, I want to approach the story from a more personal angle. Of course I can write something that includes statistics, but those articles, I feel, have less impact than accounts of personal experiences. If you can succeed in bringing the reader closer to the reality of these accidents, awareness of the threat posed can be raised.

I understand that this forum already has many comments on the issue, but using them would raise legal issues.

If you yourself have an experience, I would be greatly grateful to learn it.

Thank you for your time.

Yours sincerely,

Roland Sylvester

My email, should you wish to contact me, is roliesylvester@gmail.com
My phone number is 07904612162




[FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
 
Sorry, can't help there because I've never been involved in an accident involving drink driving. I do have a conviction for drink driving but the story isn't very exciting.

If you're writing about the campaign itself as it sounds like you may be, maybe you could look at previous campaigns and what effect they had on the statistics for drink driving and/or accidents involving drink drivers. Then you could compare those campaigns' strategies to the current one and see if there are any differences that might make this one more or less successful. Just a suggestion.

Perhaps you could also widen your remit so that you mention speeding, an offence still widely seen as being just a bit mischievous, despite the accidents it causes when speeding cars are driven by perfectly sober people who nonetheless reckon that the law doesn't apply to them. Ditto tailgating, or mobile phone use whilst driving.

As for people's personal stories, I refer you again to my suggestion of reading this forum. Then you could try contacting individuals whose stories you think are interesting or illustrate the point you want to make. Most of them are just "Went out for a drink, got in car, got stopped by police, went to court, got banned for drink driving," which I don't think is what you're after.

From this forum and the drink driving rehabilitation course I attended, I've learned that there's no stereotype to fit a drink driver. People of all ages, social classes, levels of education, jobs, and both sexes get caught drink driving. Some are bloody idiots and some are really nice people. Some are reasonable and some less so. It's just like any other fairly randomly-picked group of people you might find yourself in.

People who've never been caught drink driving are sometimes very holier-than-thou about it, and yet a large number of people are still being caught for their first drink driving offence every day.

This tells me that campaigns aren't working very well. Ask anyone here who's been convicted if there was ever a point in their lives where they thought that drink driving was brilliant and that they thought you should be allowed to do it. An advert saying, "Hey everyone, drink driving is a bad thing, don't do it," doesn't tell anyone anything they don't already know.

My personal opinion is that the information given in the drink driving rehab course should be given to all new drivers before they get a licence to hurtle around inside two tons of metal in the first place.

There, that's my twopenneth. You can quote this post if you find anything in it worth using. Either way best of luck with your piece.
 
Sir, thank you very much.

There are some great ideas here for me to refocus my article, and some points I could potentially raise with official bodies to get their comment.

Thank you onc again.

Roland
 
If your article is published I'd be interested to read it. Please come back and give us a link to it when it's done.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Enter code DRINKDRIVING10 during checkout for 10% off
Top