Leicestershire Police 'None for the Road’ Christmas campaign against drink driving
At Oakham Police Station Front Enquiry Office various items aimed at raising the profile of the campaign from car air fresheners, windscreen scrapers, wrist bands, fluffy bugs and tax disc holders and all of these items are free.
Please pop in here at Oakham Police Station to collect your free gift.
Launch of ‘None for the Road’ Christmas campaign against drink driving…
“Christmas isn’t the same without my David”
Today, the mother of Earl Shilton resident David Johnson, who was killed by a drink driver in Elmsthorpe in 2004 called for the people of Leicestershire to ‘get tough’ on drink drivers.
On September 11, 2004, David’s mother, Dawn Bycraft, received the call which was to change her life forever. She asked for ‘the facts’ and learned that David and his fiancée were riding his motorcycle when a car pulled out in front of them; he was thrown from his bike. The ‘G’ force of the collision broken every bone in his body and ruptured his aorta; he died at the scene in the arms of a stranger. His fiancée escaped with a smashed pelvis and broken leg.
On losing David, aged 33, Dawn Bycraft said: “People say time is a healer. It doesn’t heal. It only allows you the opportunity to learn how to deal with loss.
“My mother had a stroke shortly after David died; the nurse said it was due to the shock of David’s death.
“I feel that this event has taken two of my closest family members from me. I was an only child and David was my only son, it has robbed me of my grandchildren.”
The man who killed David was sentenced to three and a half (3 ½) years in prison, he served 18 months of his jail sentence.
Dawn Bycraft tells of the day she visited him in prison, she said: “I asked him to explain why he was drinking and driving. He said he was cheering his brother-in-law up after he got the news that his mother was diagnosed with cancer.”
“He said he would usually ask his wife to pick him up, but on that weekend she was away. He drove his cousin home, and that’s when he hit my David.
“I’m a deeply Christian person. People can’t understand how I can forgive him. It took me some time, but God has given me the strength to ‘love the sinner and hate the sin’”
The man who killed David lost his high paid job due to his criminal record, meaning his children had to leave their private school.
On the devastating impact of drink driving, Dawn Bycraft said: “When a pebble is tossed into the water, the ripples reach far and wide. Many people had to pay for the consequences of one man’s actions – it caused at lot of anguish for his family, not just ours.”
Dawn’s story supports the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Road Safety Partnership winter campaign against drink driving entitled ‘None for the Road’ which will run throughout December 2011. Advertisements on radio, the pump handles of local petrol station forecourts and some 50,000 beer mats in over 50 public houses now carry the campaign’s message – that drinking no alcohol at all is the safest choice when driving.
Inspector Gill Lewis, Commander of the Leicestershire Police Roads Policing Unit, she said, “As Dawn Bycraft will testify: drink driving devastates lives. Sadly, what happened to Dawn’s son David is all too common. Each year over 2,000 people lose their lives on the UK’s roads; a large proportion of those road deaths feature alcohol as a contributory factor.”
“There’s more of a temptation to drink around Christmas time. Our message is: ‘If you are going to drive, then don’t drink at all.’”
“Driver should be aware that we patrol 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week to challenge drink drivers and bring them before the courts.”
The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Road Safety Partnership are requesting that people keep their eyes and ears open this Christmas. If you see someone who appears to be drunk leave a public house or club and then enter a vehicle to drive away, make a note of the registration plate and the direction of travel and call your local police on 101* or make a make a free and anonymous call to CrimeStoppers on 0800 555 111**
*Calls cost 15p for the entire duration of the call from mobile or landline phones
**Some mobile phone providers may charge for this call
