Australian states ares very proactive in trying to reduce road deaths.
Yes and no. BTW its .05 in the NT and zero for bus /taxi or truck drivers. Just the other day in a town called Darwin (yes I know) not far from mad-or-ranka a 19 yr old driver with six on board wiped out his limo and a 14 yr old pax of six in the car none of whom were wearing seatbelts. So the msg is not getting read. Same town over a period of 6 months not long back every sunday around 2.00 am would be another single vehicle wrapped around a heavy power pole, with usually the driver and/or pax dead. So much so it seemed they were being set up by a serialist.
This case was sad as he had been counselled the night before by a senior pilot, about how it will bite him if he doesn't ease up, his wife had taken his keys off him to stop him driving, a mate had driven him home which was halfway between the place of the drunken night (Katherine) and the crash site and had lectured him severely as he dropped him of.
No one thought about the helicopter sitting there with the keys in it and the assembling party of camdrafters, rodeo riders etc just down the road. None of whom when he first landed there were smart or robust enough to whip the aircraft keys. No, instead, as he was leaving a fairly well know photographer (hence the photo quality) was set up in the grandstand overlooking the rodeo ground to take a couple of photos of a 'beat-up' as he was to leave.
The mate who dropped him off had repaired back to a domicile in Katherine where Duane's wife was and others, and started relating how he had, "told that useless bast*rd that he wants to sort himself out or he'll kill himself". That, the last thing his wife heard before the msg that there had indeed been a crash at Matarankas and they thought it was Duane..
Later we heard that there had been other shenanigans, up and down the highway at night, and flicking the Landing light on unsuspecting motor cars to scare them. Had some responsible people heard that instead of it being kept secret then there may have been another outcome.
The pax in the accident was a bull rider, say no more.
Whatever else is said it needs to be remembered that Alcoholism is a disease, and a father in a family is and should always remain as the hero to the young bereaved. At the very least until they are old enough to grasp and understand the realities of it all in a controlled environment.
I too had to struggle with a DAMP (drug and Alcohol Management Plan) for my AOC.
I hate it and I doubt it will curb this sort of accident, but it certainly may stop the various reports one hears of RPT and GA drivers wandering around in a half drunken stupor.