Yeah, I really don't know how I survived my late teens and early twenties. Call it fate, call it the significantly reduced odds of living in a smaller population with fewer cars on the road - call it whatever. I should not be alive today.

The fact that I am seems miraculous in hindsight. Was I to be the same age today, engaged in the same behaviours, I would all too soon be a statistic; my ashes drifting over the sea and mingling with the thousands of other youngsters taken too soon by recklessness.

I drank a lot see. Those were the days when booze was the drug. Some weed now and again, but predominantly - at least in the circles I moved within - alcohol reigned.

To this day, I cannot whiff Cointreau without gagging. Same with Scotch; though a penchant for some finer single malt types has survived. I don't drink much these days. The odd beer or glass of wine with a meal in a restaurant is about it.

Back then, it was my life, also the life of everyone around me. We drank to reach some place, some collective state of being allowing a lowering of defences, a mellowing of moods... Or put more simply, we drank to get drunk.

We also drove blind drunk. There was a single occasion that has stayed with me: Waking up when the front wheel of the car my friend Nikk was driving, hit the curb outside my house. Shaking my head and seeing him do the same. Realising we'd both somehow been asleep, for neither of us could remember any part of the half hour journey home.

Everyone drank, everyone drove home drunk in the wee hours. There were no cameras, no visible police presence, no ominous billboard messages, no demerit points, no 'booze buses' and yes, no seat belts - they were installed but their use was not yet mandatory.

Sometimes we'd buy a bottle and down it in the car, passing it around before we entered a nightclub. Sometimes we drank our way through dinner and moved on to pubs then nightclubs. Always, we finished up wasted on the way home. Puking out of windows or if there was time, stopping the car and doing so on the curb.

We were reckless yet did not consider ourselves reckless. Everyone was doing the same thing see. It was part of the culture, part of our way of life. That this recklessness did not in fact take any of our lives was, as I said, miraculous.

I see the same recklessness today, further enhanced by the range and availability of recreational drugs. Only, the consequences are much more evident. So many poles and road-side trees with flower garlands and fading messages, so many news stories and graphic film images of mangled cars and white shrouded bodies... Left over bits of glass and small car-parts swept or sprayed by high pressure hose to the curb, the very obvious lack of any brakes applied... Statistics and messages everywhere: Booze and drugs take young lives.

I survived. But I mourn the death of every young person I hear about. I mourn young lives taken too soon by this same recklessness that is still not perceived for the recklessness it is.

My boys have rarely seen me drink alcohol, maybe the odd glass on special occasions. They had not expressed any desire to taste it themselves until Dylan did very recently, whilst on a short break in Sydney. We were staying at a youth hostel so there was plenty of drinking going on of a night-time. He'd made a couple of German friends and the first night had declined their offer of a beer. Second night, he'd asked me if we could buy a six-pack so he could have one and share the rest around.

I joined in and we had a great evening; Dylan and I slowly sipping a single bottle each, the rest of the six-pack gleefully accepted by our newly made friends, a few of them not yet 18, so relying on older ones to purchase alcohol for them.

Here's the problem - in this country at least. When a person turns 18, they are given permission to drive on their own and also permission to drink, both on the same day. Sure, most young people have tried alcohol before 18, but they've never driven on their own. What do they do?

They have a driver's licence allowing them to purchase alcohol. They are rather proud of that, they no longer have to sneak their parent's booze or get fake IDs or convince an older person to buy it on their behalf. This licence allowing them to do this however also grants them permission to drive at the same time. See where we go wrong?

They go buy the booze, showing off their new 'permission' card. Then they drink. Then they drive drunk, and sometimes, they die or suffer horrific injuries, often very soon after they have obtained this licence.

Too many young people are killed on our roads because some bureaucrat decided decades ago that 18 was the perfect age to load all these responsibilities on a teenager at once. Remember, - decades ago - when the environment was very different to what it is today: Fewer people, fewer cars, less congestion and certainly far fewer physical objects to collide with.

I was rear-ended by a red P Plater - we have a two tiered probationary driving system here, red P the first year, green P the second year, indicating your driving experience to other drivers around you - on a major arterial road with five lanes. I saw the problem ahead and having maintained enough distance from the car in front, managed to avoid a front collision. He didn't. He hit my almost stationary car at 80kph, and his failureto react on time and leave a safe distance meant that the car behind him also crashed into his rear end - causing yet another secondary collision with my car.  

I learned later he had both alcohol and drugs in his system. He was 18 and only allowed to have one passenger in the car, and both of them escaped with minor cuts and bruises. The lady in the car behind him suffered severe whiplash and a couple of broken ribs.

I watched the whole scene unfold in the rear-view mirror. No time to warn parents and boys travelling with me. I however instinctively tensed up. Result: Permanent nerve damage to the middle of my spine. So I live in constant pain, and will do so the rest of my days.

This is what I try to explain to the boys as they now embark on their driving 'careers'. They may be driving safely, alcohol and drug free, but the person - any random person - around them may be under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. Their lives are at risk every time they get behind that wheel. But should they ever combine alcohol with their driving, the odds increase significantly, for they have not only added to the overall risk others face on the road but also added to the risks to themselves. Should they ever enter a car driven by a driver under the influence, these risks to themselves and others also rise significantly...

Marcus my youngest had a friend down on the coast. A year ago - shortly before we returned to the city - this sixteen year old friend of his 'borrowed' his mother's car, grabbed four mates and decided it would be a good idea to drink then drive along the winding and single-lane coastal road. Yes they crashed. Yes they were all severely injured. Yes, he has been restricted from driving for a number of years as a result.

The insurance would not pay for the damage to the car. Medical and rehabilitation costs for all involved were not covered by the mother's registration. She was a single parent, left with a wrecked car and a stack of bills.

It could have been a lot worse. That winding road has many spots where there's a sheer drop to the rocks below. We could have lost five young lives that day...

As a mother with two kids soon to be on the road, I fear. As someone who once thought recklessness was part of the transition to adulthood, I shudder.