Editorial: Maybe a law is what's needed

Times have changed but attitudes across the board have yet to adapt to an era in which drink driving is seen as unacceptable.

Maybe it will take a huge boot in the butt such as a law change proposed by Coroner Wallace Bain for society to get to grips with the problem.

Dr Bain says urgent consideration needs to be given to new legislation governing people's failure to stop repeat drunk drivers getting behind the wheel.

"It is very clear to me those people should have criminal responsibility," he said in his findings on the death of Rotorua 23-year-old Whittney Robertson.

It's a good idea, but as the national manager of road policing, Paula Rose, says, there would be "operational implications" in bringing it about.

One key issue may be deciding how capable certain people are when it comes to forcing someone else to not do something.

If they're not capable, should they be culpable?

Where do you draw the line and who gets to draw it?

Key questions, but they shouldn't stop serious consideration of the proposed law.

Too many people continue to drink and drive, in spite of the never-ending series of deaths and injuries caused as a result, in spite of the prospect of being named in The Daily Post or of it affecting their employment.

Too many people do stand by and do or say nothing to stop it. How many wish they had when it all goes wrong?

If drink driving is not unacceptable enough now, it may well need legislation to ram the message home.