The road accident involving a drunken driver last week, which so badly injured the driver of another car, was too horrible to contemplate.

It is only now that I find I am able to write regarding this.

In Bahrain this is an incident which should never have happened.

There is too much uncontrolled drinking. What is enjoyable about it I have no idea? Drinking solves nothing. It is a waste of money. Also it makes the drinker look stupid.

Some years ago after watching someone sitting in a car on the beach throwing bottles and downing a great deal of alcohol, I told him off. Blank stare was the response. A short while later I saw the community police who were patrolling the beach that day, a Friday around 10 o’clock in the morning.

So I stopped them and asked them to prevent the man from driving.

He was not in a good state to drive and may cause an accident.

It was surprisingly difficult to accept their reaction. They said until he had an accident, nothing could be done!

This was many years ago. Maybe 10 years. Has the power of the community police or the police in general changed over this time?

Terrible, terrible for the victim of this recent horror, (I cannot call it an accident) and his poor family.

To my mind, if you drink and drive, you are by virtue of that fact in charge of a car that has become a lethal weapon. Therefore, the action of stepping into and driving that car – whether drugged or drunk to incapability – means you are in a position whereby you may well cause death or severe injuries. Should an incident afterwards occur, a person or several people could be severely injured or killed.

If the action is premeditated surely it would be murder, not manslaughter?

Thank God that latest incident did not involve a school bus, a car full of children or a workers’ transportation vehicle. None the less so horrible for the innocent victim and his family.

My deepest and most sincere sympathy to the family of the injured gentleman to whom I wish a speedy and complete recovery, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

May I add of course I have no knowledge of the law, my comments are based only on how I perceive things may be in fairness.

Sue Al Mahmeed