Around a third of Australian road fatalities are the direct result of drink-driving. Add to that the millions of random breath tests that occur across the country every year and you’re looking at some fairly good reasons not to drink-drive.

Why drink drive in life when you can watch it on television. Photo: James Elsby

Not that you’d know that from the statistics; the percentage of alcohol-fuelled road fatalities has remained constant in the past two decades. In fact, our collective apathy toward the separation of alcohol consumption and motor vehicle control is so great as to warrant its own show on the Nine Network.

Premiering last Sunday, RBT is Nine’s attempt at discouraging drink-driving or, depending on your point of view, an attempt to capitalise on the inability of Australian drivers to understand that driving home after six beers is probably a bad idea.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, the trendy acronym RBT stands for “random breath test”, although it could just as easily be “really banal television”.

According to a press release from Nine, the “compelling new series goes behind the lines of the NSW Police force on breath testing operations” from “major roadside drink-driving operations and mobile breath-testing to high-speed pursuits and drivers under the influence of drugs.” That all sounds very promising but the show’s first episode did little to earn the glowing tone of the initial press release.

We met a bubbly Scottish woman whose dirty jokes had Kings Cross police thinking (incorrectly) that she might have indulged in some recreation drug use. We saw a concerned-looking skipper providing a negative test out on Sydney Harbour, despite the instincts of the testing officer. We watched as a slew of drivers passed through the RBT stations, accurately proclaiming their innocence.

Far from providing “compelling” viewing, these encounters were hammed up so as to enhance their dramatic impact – has she been taking drugs, or hasn’t she? And then there was the lovable bogan from Tamworth, Michael.

After finishing work for the day, the young plumber was convinced by his boss to stick around for a few Coronas. Far from being let “glide past” when the police saw “the ladders on the ute”, young
Michael was breath-tested and blew a .065. While his pregnant wife waited at home with dinner on the table, young Michael found himself acting as comic relief for the 1.323 million viewers that tuned in for Sunday’s premiere.

After being arrested “for the purpose of breath analysis” a sheepish Michael enquired “do youse put cuffs on me?” While sitting in the booze bus waiting for a secondary breath test he ventured a similarly comical “You know the worst part? I don’t even like Coronas!”

As fun as it is to laugh at our rural-dwelling brethren, it doesn’t exactly make for “compelling” television. And as for Nine’s assertion that RBT is “new”, well, that’s only partially true.

Sure, there hasn’t been a show called RBT on Australian TV before but the idea of the “front-line heroes” show is hardly original. You know the sort of shows I mean; the ones where we get a “behind the scenes look” at a valuable department or service doing their bit to protect Australians from the ills of the world. Shows like Ten’s Bondi Rescue, Nine’s Customs and Seven’s essentially-xenophobic Border Security are just a few that spring to mind.

The “front-line heroes” genre has a number of key characteristics. The shows are cheap to produce; after all, why bother paying someone to write quality Australian drama when you can film an existing service or department doing what they do every day?  More important than the cost of such shows, however, is the message. Whether it’s a warning for viewers to respect quarantine laws or to swim between the flags, the “front-line heroes” show is really about instilling positive community values.

In the case of RBT, Nine does things a little differently; the only thing more effective than a police officer telling viewers that drink-driving is bad, is a recently de-licensed drink-driver telling you drink-driving is bad.

Introducing Dean, the episode’s token idiot. Having blown twice the legal limit, had his license confiscated and incurred a $750 fine and an eight-month driving ban, the vodka & red-bull sipping numbskull had the gall to lecture the viewer about drink-driving; “I think people that drink too much and drive are idiots, but I thought I was right to drive – one drink an hour was what I had and yeah, I’ll pay the consequences for that”.

Throw in some cheesy, suspenseful music as drivers await the results of their breath tests and a spinning blood-alcohol content counter at the bottom of the screen and you’ve got a thoroughly forgettable instalment in what is an already disposable genre.

A big thanks should go to the 33 per cent of Australians who have admitted to drink-driving in the past – without you, this sort of show just wouldn’t be possible.

20 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Gaz says:

      07:25am | 30/06/10

      I don’t get how they get a bloke like Dean to go on a show like this. I wouldn’t want the whole country watching a blow by blow account of how I blew over and subsequently lost my licence.

      The show is educational though, now I know I can drink four Coronas over two hours and by the time they get my to the cop shop for a secondary test I’ll only blow .035. Heck I could probably have six based on that result.

      But apart from the fact that these shows only have about ten minutes of actual content by the time they have a few ads and spend the other 50% of air time recapping what they’ve already shown you, I love them.

    • Front up says:

      07:22pm | 30/06/10

      They’re all actors.

    • Darryl Price says:

      07:47am | 30/06/10

      The recaps are probably the single most annoying thing about all these programmes. It is either because (a) They don’t expect someone to sit and watch the whole show - people come and go, or (b) The attention span is so short that we need to be reminded of what we were watching before the last 3 minutes of ads. If the answer is (b) it is probably self fulfilling. All in all, it is lazy television, for lazy people.

    • iansand says:

      08:54am | 30/06/10

      1.323 people too drunk or stupid to understand a programme guide and watch something else.  This is the really concerning statistic

    • iansand says:

      09:29am | 30/06/10

      Ahem.  That would be 1.323 million people (unless you were counting neurones, in which case my first post would be correct).

    • BK says:

      10:33am | 30/06/10

      I liked the line about ladders on the roof. If people have ever watched police conduct these operations, they do tend to target certain types of cars. The lesson to be learned is only drink drive in a new car so you look like a nice middle class person who police think “is probably on our side”.

    • iansand says:

      12:28pm | 30/06/10

      I had a clean driving record until I bought a red Alfa Romeo.  My driving style did not change, but police were much more interested in me.

      And I was once pulled over for a RBT.  I asked the cop why and he told me that it was the skis on my roof.

    • Gary Cox says:

      01:35pm | 30/06/10

      That’s fair enough. If I was a cop I’d hassle people who were big enough twats to drive around in red alfas with skis on the roof. I would also target 45 year old blokes with pony tails driving porsche 911s and anyone in a BMW.

    • iansand says:

      02:25pm | 30/06/10

      Garry Cox - I can’t remember whether you Punch for Labor or Liberal.  I hope, for the sake of consistency, it is the former.  A little bit of class warfare sticking its head above the parapet?

    • Stephen Fitzpatrick says:

      02:30pm | 30/06/10

      Gary, if you were a cop you’d meet your monthly target a lot faster if you targetted SS utes.

    • Front up says:

      07:26pm | 30/06/10

      When I was doing RBTs as a cop we’d be looking for lights that were close together, small cars, around 2330 - that meant nurses knocking off after afternoon shift.
      We’d then get to say hello, ask them out for a drink after we knocked off, and then all drive home pissed together.
      Get real.

    • Greg says:

      09:14am | 05/08/10

      If you drive an old car and wear a baseball cap you can double your chances of getting pulled over, age is also a big factor, You can spot these bogan idiots on the show from a mile away.

    • martin crothers says:

      10:48am | 30/06/10

      there is no such thing as compelling television viewing in australia

    • Simonious says:

      11:11am | 30/06/10

      I dont know about that Martin. Watching Rudd’s quivering chin last week on TV was pretty compelling for me.

    • Seano says:

      11:18am | 30/06/10

      I kind of agree, I don’t know why I watched this show but I won’t make that mistake again.

      Hopefully it will have an impact on drink drivers but I tend to think that the people who aren’t conscientious about their drinking when driving aren’t going to pay any attention or be like the sanctimonious bloke on the show.

    • Richard says:

      03:14pm | 30/06/10

      There was a foreign correspondant episode on ABC last night chronicling the drug wars in the favelas of Rio de Janiero which was thoroughly compelling for me…

    • Nathan says:

      12:07pm | 30/06/10

      I would have thought the plumber was a better adsvertisement for not drink driving. He was literally pooing himself. I’m not sure if he was more scared of his pregnant wife or blowing low range DUI. Either way, i bet he will never drink and drive again. He was one of those blokes though that you were sitting there hoping the machine in the bus didn’t work so he had time for the Alcahol to diperse while he went to the police station. But on the flip side, the guythat blew double the limit you were hoping they threw the book at him. Really wasn’t a bad show except for all the recaping etc. I think they only actually breath tested half a dozen people in that 30 minute show.

    • martin says:

      04:28pm | 30/06/10

      are you of the opinion that it is REAL?  it is , just like big borther is real, the whole thing is staged and edited, so suckers will think it is real, but since you wold even consider watching such moronic rubbish you wont care anyways

    • stephen says:

      01:55pm | 30/06/10

      Mercedes Benz got a car out now, if yer pissed and behind the wheel it’ll go nowhere.
      (Must be why anyone who’s got one never whines about the cost of fuel.)

    • S.L says:

      07:59pm | 30/06/10

      My business is in public transport. My toy is an old Monaro. I’m just on the right side of 50. I have been put on a “good boy” licence 3 times in 22 years and have had all 12 points for the last 3 years. In saying that every booking has been on the job. I’ve only been pulled over in the Monaro once. As they couldn’t find anything illegal with the car (I love how police have the authority to inspect cars when they aren’t mechanics) they booked me for excessive noise. I had the defect cleared the next day without laying a spanner on it. I just wonder what this new program will achieve? The only lawbreakers you will see on the show are the idiots, just a NSW version of the VIC one on a few months ago.

 

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