By EWAN KENNEDY
18 September 2006

Went to the wedding of my niece Melissa at the weekend. It was a lovely occasion and the gorgeous bride turned up in a beautiful old horse and carriage. She has no interest in cars, finding horses far more fascinating. As it turned no-one else with whom I chatted at the reception afterwards had a hankering after cars either.

Which always makes for a good evening on my behalf, because one of the perils in the life of a motoring journo is being waylaid and ear-bashed by endless car nuts. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of interesting car guys out there and I love talking to them. But there are others who simply don’t understand the art of conversation and engage instead in long monologues while they tell me of every car they have ever owned, dreamt-of owning, been driven in, and much, too much, more.

Though they weren’t car guys, they all owned cars, of course, because just about everyone in Australia does.

Then some of the non-car people then started to frighten me with their attitude to driving. In particular to driving whilst drunk. The wedding reception was in the Hunter Valley and many of the guests had chosen to stay overnight in one of the nearby hotels or resorts.

None of these accommodation destinations were far away, generally only five or ten minutes drive. And the feeling seemed to be that the chances of being picked up and breath tested on a five-minute drive were almost non-existent.

Thankfully, the general feeling was that it was best to play it safe and have a designated driver to ferry them home, even on that short trip.

But what really concerned me was that their only worry was of being breath tested. No-one seemed to realise that a big tree beside the road on a five minute drive can kill you just as suddenly as a concrete light post in an hours trip in a suburban area.

Have people stopped drink driving simply because they are worried about being fined? Don’t they realise the dangers of driving while their minds aren't working at full capacity? Do they still feel that drink driving is acceptable and/or that they are still fully capable even after they have too much to drink?

Sadly, the fear of getting caught seems to be the number one reason for not drinking and driving.

Equally sad was the untimely death of Peter Brock, I met him many times over the years and was well aware of his dislike of drunk drivers. Some younger car racing fans may not even be aware that that Peter’s famed racing number ‘05’ actually began its life as ‘.05’ because of his involvement in anti-drink driving campaigns in which drivers were told to keep themselves under .05 blood alcohol content.

I will miss Peter Brock, one of the most charismatic men I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.