Steve Sibbald's Column

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Previous Columns

Shovel up the sh*t
2012-04-27

March of the Living
2012-04-21

A sinister state of affairs
2012-04-13

Don't tamper with tradition
2012-04-07

Another sunny day
2012-03-31

Demonstrations of discontent
2012-03-24

Ugly scenes and shameful fans
2012-03-17

An Ideal Place to be Ill
2012-03-10

A depressing new outlook
2012-03-03

Tusk on tenterhooks
2012-02-25

Sex toys and sinister tales
2012-02-17

Topsy-turvy Donald Tusk
2012-02-10

Propa propaganda
2012-02-04

Mixed reports
2012-01-27

Cheap tricks by RP
2012-01-20

Another twist
2012-01-14

Picking out the protests
2012-01-06

Picking up the PiSes?
2011-12-17

A middle finger from the FA
2011-12-10

Law and Justice Logic
2011-12-03

Poland's Image Problems
2011-11-26

Gdzie jest tolerancja?
2011-11-19

Problems for PiS
2011-11-11

Power to the (left-minded) people
2011-11-05

Thumbs up for the tolerance test
2011-10-29

Gambling? Get used to it
2011-10-22

More praise for Palikot required
2011-10-15

PiSsed off with politics
2011-10-08

Is the grass greener?
2011-10-01

Down with dangerous driving

Friday 11th May, 2012

While many made the most of last week’s public holidays by taking an additional day or two off to allow them more time to spend with their loved ones, for a large number of families the national holidays brought devastating news.

Police statistics show that 65 people lost their lives on the road during the May break and hundreds more were injured due to accidents - the vast majority of which could, of course, have been avoided.

Anyone with any knowledge of Poland will tell you about its shocking drink driving problem, but to read that well over 5,000 drivers around the country witnessed the inside of the drunk tank during such a short period is still staggering.

As police spokeswoman Grazyna Puchalska points out on PAP’s website, we’re not talking about drivers who had been to a BBQ for half a shandy. These are people who by all accounts should not have been able to find their way to bed, let alone their car keys.

We all know the notoriously poor state many of the nation’s ‘motorways’ and country lanes are in. Many wouldn’t look out of place in an off-road rally, so throw in a skinful of Polish piwo washed down with a few vodka shots they could probably pass as rocket-fuel and the outcome is never going to be pretty.

In this week’s paper there’s a rather bizarre article about one group of locals who got so fed up with the driving habits of one of the village residents that they took matters into their own hands.

Now I’m not saying sticking everybody’s cars in trees is a perfect (or indeed practical) form of punishment, but at least it shows that a bit of initiative can sometimes do the trick where the law seems to be failing.

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