CHOICES
We all have choices, sometime we make good choices, sometimes we are just really lucky or maybe unlucky and other times we just make a bad choice.
Alexander David James Grant having a drink ©alfie.duffy/instagram
Earlier this year (Feb, 2020) I read an article about a teenager in Dunedin, New Zealand, who had been charged with drink driving. The Headline was "Student sings his way out of conviction". This created a fair amount of public reaction, some supporting and others not. The article can be found on Stuff.co.nz
here and
here, as well as
Newshub,
RNZ, and even
Dailymail.co.uk.
The drunk driver, Alexander David James Grant, made a very bad decision to get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. He was extremely lucky to have not had an accident and killed someone. He was also extremely lucky that Judge Turner made a choice, right or wrong, he made a choice to give Mr Grant a chance to redeem himself through the
Right Track Programme.
Mr Grant (aka XuzzDoc) appears to be someone who could be very successful in life, he clearly has some skills in the music field and was named a prefect for Otago Boys High School in 2018. He took this opportunity that the Judge gave him and he produced a song to explain his poor choice and to show he had learned from this choice. It's a good song and was provided free of copyright in a hope it would be shared and used by various programmes to promote the right choice, NOT to drink drive.
In the interests and intent that Mr Grant made by not claiming a copyright i have provided the audio track and video link with the hope that someone might use this as a learning, support or marketing tool tool for driver education programmes (i have included a list of various programmes in NZ and AU if you are interested or in need of support).
So, the facts of the case are that Alexander Grant was stopped by police and recorded a breath alcohol reading of 1077 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath.
For most of us, i.e. anyone aged over 20, will commit an infringement in NZ (you'll get a fine) if you have more than 250 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath (50 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood). You'll commit an offence (you go to court and could go to jail) if you have more than 400 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath (80 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood).
In NSW Australia, it is a zero tolerance for learners and provisional plate drivers with a 0.05 grams (50 milligrams) of alcohol in every 100 millilitres of blood.
HOWEVER, in New Zealand, if you are under 20 years old these limits are reduced to zero and 150 respectively (30 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood). Therefore Mr Grant was more than 7 times over the offence limit of 150 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath.
Interestingly, the Right Track Programme is clearly still operating, however the website does not seem to be getting regularly updated. Most statistics are nearly 10 years old and the last blog update is 3 years old. After the publicity and the song that Mr Grant produced, I would have expected a full use of this and the promotion of another success story, but there is nothing on the website.
There are numerous programmes generally locally based and specific to each region.
In New Zealand
Your welcome
It's The Truth
21/08/2020
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