Durham has become infamous in the news recently, with headlines such as “Student Drownings Cause Durham Police to Lose Patience with “Unsafe” Drinking Culture”. What I don’t understand is why alcoholism is becoming a scapegoat for the unnecessary deaths when sober people have also fallen victim to the river and the poor precautions surrounding it.
What the media fail to highlight is the local people who have also died as a result of the poorly lit conditions and lack of barricading. Colin Pine, a 55-year-old father was last seen watching the Tyne-Wear derby before Christmas, was uncovered by police during the search for student Euan Coulthard. 23-year-old Daniel Moir left his family home to go for a walk before he was uncovered in the search for Sope Peters last year. But, of course, these recent deaths must be a result of student unruliness and too much alcohol.
By blaming the tragic deaths on alcohol and trying to introduce new measures to curb drunken behaviour, all it is doing is devaluing the lost lives of the Durham students, almost making it out to be their own fault, which is obviously not the case. According to a study done in 2013, Durham doesn’t even feature on the ‘top 10 booziest student cities in the UK’, reiterating the idea that Durham is no different, and definitely no worse, than other student towns in terms of alcohol consumption.
Nonsensically, the local government and police seem to be introducing fines, breathalisers and more police control rather than dealing with the actual problem, the dangers of the river bank itself. Surely it would be more sensible to spend money on lighting and prevention methods rather than suggesting that this is merely a drinking problem.
Like other students, I have grappled with the poorly lit river bank myself and I think it is safe to say that it would be extremely easy to lose your balance, sober or not, especially in the winter months where river bank and river are near impossible to differentiate. The way I see it, the deaths are tragic, period. Whether they were inebriated or not, it is irrelevant; a death is a death and must be treated as such, with respect.
[Photo Credit: Venus Loi]