The pain never goes away –that is the sombre message from the father of a teenage girl killed by a drink-driver who has today backed our hard-hitting name and shame campaign.
The EDP and its sister paper the Norwich Evening News have vowed to name and shame motorists who have put lives at risk by getting behind the wheel after having had too much to drink.
As part of the campaign we will expose those who are convicted of drink driving during the police's annual festive crackdown and publish their name, full details and picture in the newspaper.
The Name and Shame campaign has earned the backing of Peter Jermy whose 16-year-old daughter Lisa was killed by a drink-driver following a crash on Magdalen Road, Norwich, in October 2006, just weeks before the Norwich City College student's 17th birthday.
Mr Jermy, 65, from Margaret Paston Avenue, Mile Cross, said he hoped the campaign would get people to think about what they were doing.
He said: 'I think the campaign is very good because when someone does get named and shamed I think it shakes a few people up – especially if its someone they know – so I think its a very good thing to do.'
Mr Jermy said he also wanted those who risk the lives of others by drink driving to know that the pain and suffering caused to the families of victims stays with them forever.
He said: 'The main thing for people like me and my wife and family is that these drink drivers, whether they get banned for a little while or some of them go to prison but its for a short period and then they come out. They've got their lives and they carry on but the people that they've affected, it stays with them for the rest of their lives. It never goes away.'
The father of five and grandfather of six said the younger members of the family, some of whom never met Lisa, were being told all about her and how she died to help them to understand the dangers of drink driving as they grow up.
He said: 'Everyone needs to realise that once your in a motor vehicle you're in a killing machine if you don't treat it with respect.'
Do you have a story for our drink-drive campaign? Email peter.walsh@archant.co.uk
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