Where is the Carter criticism?
OPINION: In 2015, 90 people died in crashes involving drunk or drugged up drivers on New Zealand roads.
From what I can tell, nobody died as a result of two consenting adults doing whatever they did in one of New Zealand’s disabled toilets.
Not that you’d know it, from the reaction to All Blacks legend Dan Carter being caught drink driving in France.
It’s a classic Kiwi double standard. If alcohol is involved, it’s one of those things.
Carter was clocked at nearly double the legal limit by French police, an action that endangered those around him.
After one beer, some people show the same reduction in cognitive ability as someone who has suffered a concussion. Try a World Rugby concussion test on inebriated friends for proof.
You aren’t allowed to operate machinery with a concussion, so why you’d drive after drinking is anybody’s guess.
Studies also show the likelihood of crashing depending on the amount of alcohol in one’s system.
Carter, at 0.98mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, was about 30 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than if he was alcohol free.
Those are sobering numbers. And yet, the public reaction suggests his misdemeanour can be put down to an ‘‘error of judgement’’ or a ‘‘life lesson’’.
If it involves alcohol, us Kiwis don’t seem to think it’s that serious.
‘‘Man, don’t beat yourself up about it,’’ one Facebook commenter told Carter, and I’m paraphrasing here. ‘‘It was a mistake. You are a Kiwi legend…’’
Rewind four months, and All Blacks halfback Aaron Smith was caught popping into the loo with a consenting woman. She happened to not be his partner.
Cue outrage. Smith was ‘‘disgusting’’, and his partner ‘‘deserves better than you’’. Some suggested he should never play for the All Blacks again.
One media outlet even went to the toilet in question and provided us with a video of the scene.
We need to get our priorities straight.
Don’t get me wrong. Smith’s actions saw him lose a whole ton of respect, and rightly so.
But Carter could have killed someone and we just shrug it off?
In 2016, 25,298 people were nabbed for what the police call ‘‘alcohol specific offences’’. That is a whopping 69 people per day throughout the country done for drink driving.
Nearly 30 per cent of all fatal crashes involve alcohol or drugs. That number is far too high.
But, hey, we all make mistakes, right. Don’t beat yourselves up about it.