Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Drinking habits of English and German teenagers
In England the social meeting place isn’t a café but a pub. On the one hand people go there after work for a pint to unwind after a busy working day. But on the other hand there are a lot of young people who go there with the intention of getting drunk at the weekend. Finally they get drunk and behave badly. The problem is that more and more teenagers are drinking alcohol regularly. And unfortunately there are no campaigns against the abuse of alcohol.With regard to Germany it’s nearly the same situation. A lot of teenagers drink a lot of alcohol as well. Nowadays it seems to be cool to drink alcohol. The point is that most of them feel more relaxed. As a matter of fact alcohol helps remove inhibitions. Apparently that’s the reason why it is easier for them to engage someone in conservation. In Germany teenagers usually go to discos. The problem is that they often go there by car. The driver is accompanied by other teenagers who are happy that one person drives but they don’t think about the consumption of alcohol.
In Germany if you do have a car and you do drink, you are only allowed to drive as long as you haven’t consumed more than 0,25 millilitres. Teenagers don’t have any feelings how much they are allowed to drink. They want to have a great time and instead of stopping to drink they think that they can drink a little bit more. But actually they can’t judge themselves and already pass the alcohol limit. At the end of the night there are so many bad accidents on their way back home which are needless. In the past the government realised the problem and tried to find some measures. For example there was a campaign that if you drove by taxi to a disco then you would have a cheaper fare. Nethertheless the “disco accidents” rate didn’t decrease. Particularly the drivers who recently passed their test are concerned. For instance statistics from 2005 showed that 44 % of teen drivers who drove under the influence of alcohol caused an accident in which people got hurt. Apart from the fact that they drink alcohol to feel part of the group they still don’t have enough driving experience. That means they don’t know how to behave in special situations and finally they can’t control their car any more.
As far as the problem is concerned the Government enacted a law which came into force on 01.08.2007. The main point is that new drivers aren’t allowed to drink any alcohol if they drive. That means an absolute zero tolerance towards teenage drink-drivers up to the age of 21. One has to wait to see how the things will change. I think that an absolute alcohol ban for the group of new drivers is necessary. The statistic shows this group as an “endangered” group. In addition the police has to do more preventive work, e.g. more traffic controls.
Finally one can hope that the accident rate will decrease.
(by Anne)
