Plot twist: to (try to) save young people from nighttime curves, the State Police, insurance companies, nightclub owners, and beach establishment managers sat around a table. In the presence of Minister Piantedosi and with the Chief of Police – Director General of Public Security Prefect Vittorio Pisani, the President of the ANIA Foundation Maria Bianca Farina, the President of SILB FIPE Maurizio Pasca and the President of SIB FIPE Antonio Capacchione, the President of FederBalneari Italia Marco Maurelli, and in the presence of the Central Director of Specialties of the State Police Prefect Renato Cortese, a historic agreement was signed: on one side those who control the roads, on the other those who sell beer for two euros and umbrellas at resort prices.
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The goal is noble and, let’s be honest, a bit desperate: to reduce accidents, which remain the leading cause of death among young people. Not with new laws (those already exist and are strict), but with “culture.” Magic word. Culture of responsible driving, culture of the designated driver, culture of not overdoing it with drinks before getting behind the wheel. Santo Puccia, the head of the Traffic Police, has emphasized these concepts many times until he lost his voice.
The project
Now we go further. At midnight, in a nightclub on the Riviera, among smoke and bass that make your stomach tremble, someone hands out leaflets. On a mid-August beach, among wet towels and blaring radios, there is talk of alcohol and drugs. The Traffic Police intensify checks in places where nightlife is wildest. Trade associations explain to their members that it is better to cooperate, because a dead customer never returns to dance or sunbathe.
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The strategy
“It is a structured and multi-year commitment,” the signatories of this protocol are keen to specify. But the big news (and we spoke of a “historic agreement” not by chance) is because here pieces that normally do not talk to each other are brought together. The nightclub and the checkpoint, the umbrella and the breathalyzer. Places where rules are usually escaped, transformed into civic education classrooms. And there is also a certain resignation: we all know that the problem is not just information. It is the night itself, it is summer, it is that strange Italian euphoria that confuses freedom with impunity, fun with the absence of consequences.
The designated driver will remain, I fear, a somewhat solitary figure, like the grandfather who stays sober on New Year’s Eve to bring everyone home. But at least now, he officially has the support of venue managers and lifeguards. It is not little. In a country where often one waits for someone to die to remember that the road does not forgive, signing a protocol is already a polite way of saying: “Let’s try.”
