President of the Jamaica Race Drivers Club (JRDC) Hilary Jardine and executive director of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) Paula Fletcher have hailed the visit of two-time Formula One champion Mika Hakkinen as a timely one that will help reinforce the idea that drinking and driving is unacceptable behaviour.

Hakkinen, the 1998 and 1999 Formula One champion, is a Johnnie Walker Ambassador. He made a two-day pit-stop here in Jamaica recently during which he spread the message about the dangers of drink driving in Diageo’s Join the Pact campaign. Join the Pact is aimed at getting people to pledge never to drink and drive. So far, more than 750,000 people world-wide have joined the campaign.

“The JRDC was exceptionally pleased to have someone of this calibre visit,” Jardine said. “That he was here promoting safe driving is even more fantastic seeing that the JRDC has for years, been promoting safe driving. We are concerned about people drinking and driving.”

According to Jardine, who has been president of the JRDC since 2006, the JRDC has always mandated that if one has a drink he should assign a driver. Drinking, he says, causes people to lose control of their faculties and when that happens they don’t make allowances for other users of the road.

Speaking at the Johnnie Walker ‘Join the Pact’ press conference last Monday at the Jamaica Pegasus, Fletcher praised Diageo saying the visit will help move Jamaica in-line with other societies where drinking and driving in frowned upon and deemed unacceptable because the behaviour puts so many lives at risk.

“His visit is a very powerful message and it will help bring across the message here. It’s actually a double message — speed kills and don’t drink and drive,” she said.

According to the NRSC executive director, drinking and driving is a serious problem in Jamaica. “We do not know the extent of it because the research has not been done, but Professor Archie McDonald conducted a small study a few years ago on patients who came into hospital from motor-vehicle accidents. There was significant co-relation between those who were involved in those accidents and those found to have been drinking,” she said.

The timing of the visit, she said, was also excellent as Christmas is approaching and it is a time of year when the most drinking occurs. Hakkinen’s visit will send a powerful message and promote a healthy lifestyle — if you drink, you don’t have to drive. “Take a cab or carpool,” she said.

That is the message that Hakkinen was here to deliver. “I signed to up to become the Johnnie Walker Responsible Drinking Ambassador because drinking and driving is a serious issue,” he said. “I feel I can use my experience as a successful Formula One driver to raise awareness of the dangers particularly around drinking and driving. It’s never okay to drink and drive, and I am strongly committed to supporting Johnnie Walker in their ongoing efforts to promote this message.”

Marguerite Cremin, head of corporate relations at Red Stripe, a Diageo company, which distributes Johnnie Walker, said promoting responsible consumption of its brands was one of the company’s pillars and that it was happy to have Mika as its spokesperson.

“Mika Häkkinen is an accomplished race car driver and now holds a lofty position in driver management. His visit to Jamaica will reinforce Diageo’s unwavering commitment to responsible drinking,” Cremin said.

Red Stripe has long encouraged responsible drinking among its consumers and is the industry leader in this regard. For years it has partnered with the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) in aiming to reduce traffic deaths linked to drink driving.

National Road Safety Council’s Paula Fletcher (left) talks with Red Stripe’s head of corporate relations, Marguerite Cremin and retired Formula One champion and Johnnie Walker ambassador Mika Hakkinen during the Join the Pact ‘Never Drink and Drive’ press conference last week Monday at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.