South African laws require alcohol products to display one of seven warnings. This is one of them. Source.
this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2025
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Unfortunately it’s usually not safe to walk in the road even sober. So while this is kinda victim blaming it’s also not wrong.
I went back and forth on this.
I have been been drunk enough to find myself walking on an empty road zig zagging back and forth. If a car comes and isn’t paying attention I could get hit.
Now granted the car should be paying attention but I don’t think anyone here is going to argue drunkenly stumbling around the road is a good idea.
So at that I feel it’s a fair warning but…
That day I was stumbling I can’t imagine looking at the bottle and saying “oh DONT walk drunk in the road! Thanks bottle for saving my life!”
So I don’t think it’s attacking us pedestrians but it is kinda silly and they’d be better of just slapping the “drink in moderation “ label we normally see and ignore.
Not sure it is completely silly.
You often see those labels beforehand and maybe think "Oh yeah, better organize something to get home or stay for the night."
And at least raises awareness about the negative effects of alcohol (there are several more warnings I have just learned from @LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
What surprisingly is even less safe: Using stairs.
Statistics show e.g. using stairs to be about 3 times more deadly than traffic participation as a pedestrian in my country.
So it would actually make much more sense to print "Don't drink and use stairs" on the bottle. :-)
Is that 3 times more deadly per mile traveled, or for a given amount of time spent using stairs, or just total, for every one person killed by a car (as a pedestrian), 3 are slain by stairs?
It's the total numbers compared.
So if you would get numbers per time or travelled distance, this would probably be even worse (>>3 times more deadly).
Especially since the statistics are from Germany. We are enthusiastic public walkers.
Wow interesting. Do you live in a relatively safe country for pedestrians? I do not so it may be different here.
Germany.
I guess our pedestrian infrastructure is probably better than in most other places.
But we also like to walk a lot, so this might shift statistics again...
These statistics are regularily presented at company safety courses to get us to actually use the provided handrails. :-)
Imagine all kinds of other products had a warning like this. Don't wear sunglasses and walk on the street, you may be killed. Don't use wet wipes and walk on the road, you may be killed. Don't play videogames and walk on the road, you may be killed. Guess at least they warn of how dangerous it is near cars.
This seems very appropriate for the fuckcars community- you shouldn’t drunk walk because you’re even more likely to be killed by a car.
Better drive, then...
Now, earnestly:
Could this just be a translation error? There is also another slight semantic error in there, if I'm not mistaken (be/get).
"You could be killed" is fine. (Edit: "you may be killed" is also fine. My error misquoting.)
I don't believe this is a mistaken attempt to warn against drunk driving.
I think it's an alternative warning about a different danger, from people going out to drink, getting too drunk to make safe decisions, and staggering home down the middle of the street, whereupon they are run over by vehicles.
The drivers of which may also be drunk, or perhaps just unwary, as they round a bend and encounter an unforseen person who then dodges the wrong way or not at all.
There's also a danger of passing out in the middle of the road, cosplaying as roadkill until you become it, but that's more of a vodka problem.
Be/get: interesting, I thought there to be a major difference (one describing a state already in, the other the process leading there).
.
I think it’s an alternative warning about a different danger
What bugs me for this interpretation, is that the warning about drunk driving would then be completely missing. That doesn't make sense somehow.
Some states/countries have an assortment of warnings to choose from, like with cigarettes. The font is large so you don't have to put all of them. An average drinker sees them all eventually.
This actually sounds plausible.
We also have the cigarettes thing.
(But alcohol are standard warnings: pregnancy, age restrictions - no driving warnings interestingly)
True story