The consequences of excessive alcohol consumption were shown in sharp relief at a major conference hosted by the North-East’s three Police and Crime Commissioners in Durham.
The conference heard the heart-breaking story of Kristian Thompson, a County Durham teenager who died in rehabilitation months after being hit by a single punch in 2010.
Since then, his mother Maxine has committed every effort to an awareness campaign called One Punch North East, using the keywords ‘stop, think and walk away’.
County Durham Police and Crime Commissioner Ron Hogg joined his Cleveland and Northumbria counterparts – Barry Coppinger and Vera Baird – at the conference.
“We all know what the consequences of excessive alcohol consumption can be,” said Hogg.
“But only by talking to people who have suffered tragedies such as Maxine, do you really appreciate how utterly devastating they are.”
The Commissioners also backed calls from Colin Shevills, director of Balance North-East, the regional alcohol office, for the limit for driving with alcohol in the bloodstream to be reduced to the same level as was introduced in Scotland in 2014.
The Commissioners recently backed a Private Members’ Bill in the House of Lords which called for the same reduction, and have today received a letter from the Secretary of State for Transport, stating that the Government ‘has no plans to change the drink driving limit in England and Wales’.
Coppinger said: “This response provides no comfort to the victims of drink-driving.
“In Scotland the new limit has led to a 17% reduction in drinkdrive offences. The three PCCs in the North-East region will continue campaigning for a lower drink-drive limit to bring into line with most of the rest of Europe.”
Speaking at the conference this week were Jon Foster (senior research and policy officer for the Institute of Alcohol Studies), Professor Dorothy Newbury Birch (Professor of alcohol and public health research, Teesside University), Colin Shevills (director of Balance), Maxine Thompson (One Punch North-East), Miriam Davidson (director of public health for Darlington) and Kirsty Gail-Wilkinson (public health portfolio holder for Durham County Council).
