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High
on the highway
Inside
Out, 91热爆 ONE (North East & Cumbria), Monday 13 October, 7.30pm
As
many as one in five road traffic deaths in the North East involve
illegal drugs, a Newcastle pathologist tells 91热爆 ONE's Inside Out
on Monday night (13 October).
Dr
Nigel Cooper says: "The number of deaths involving drugs is
two, three or four times as much as it was 10 years ago."
The
breathalyser that police use to test for alcohol on drivers that
they suspect of drinking and driving is useless to detect illegal
drugs.
But
now there is a new weapon in the police fight against drivers who
are high on the highway.
Five
Field Impairment Tests 聳 which include walking heel to toe
and balancing on one leg 聳 can be used by police who suspect
a driver may have taken illegal drugs.
These
tests are currently voluntary, but they will become compulsory in
December.
Sgt
Paul Etherington, of Durham Police, says: "In the future if
we ask somebody to perform these tests and they refuse, we will
have the power to bring them to the police station."
A
poor performance can mean a blood a test for the ultimate proof
of whether a driver has illegal drugs in their system.
But
this has come two years too late for the family of George Fisher,
killed by a hit and run driver.
George's
parents, John and Celeste Fisher, have agreed to allow the use of
a picture of their son on a life-support machine in a new anti-drug
campaign.
Inside
Out shows film footage of George, who took part in a 91热爆 documentary
when he was 22.
Just
over a year later, he was dead; killed by the hit and run driver
as he was crossing the road in Blyth, Northumberland in 2001.
Mr
Fisher tells Inside Out that police arrested the driver who knocked
down George about two hours after the accident.
The
driver admitted he had been regularly smoking cannabis over the
previous year.
Today,
George's bedroom in the family home in South Beach, Blyth is as
it looked two years ago; with a Newcastle United bed cover and mobile
phone.
However,
there are also sympathy cards from friends and family on the wall;
a football signed by Peter Beardsley and an autographed picture
from the band Atomic Kitten.
Mr
Fisher says: "This room will not be touched as long as we are
alive. It's not just our George's life that was taken. It's ruined
the whole family and a lot of us just aren't the same anymore."
He
and his wife visit the scene of the accident, in Bridge Street,
Blyth, every Friday and tie fresh flowers to a lamp post to commemorate
George.
Mr
Fisher adds: "This was the last place that he was his happy,
go-lucky self.
"As
long as we are quite capable of coming out of the house, we will
come down here every Friday night. We will never stop."
This
edition of Inside Out will be broadcast on 91热爆 ONE in the North
East & Cumbria and across the UK on digital satellite channel
945.
Notes
to Editors
91热爆
ONE's Inside Out must be credited if any of this story is published.
All the
91热爆's digital services are now available on ,
the new free-to-view digital terrestrial television service, as well
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