EVERY year around Christmas people die due to drink-driving. This year will be no different.

With an all-too depressing regularity, every season sees the same sad sequence of events.

A few drinks at lunchtime. One for the road. Go on, it's Christmas - one won't hurt you. And for that brief pleasure, what? A life lost, a family torn apart or someone left injured for life.

Last year, according to West Mercia police, eight people died and 196 were injured in road accidents throughout the force area over the festive period.

But those bald statistics don't begin to tell the story.

Eighteen years ago, Gina Curnock lost her daughter Allison following a car accident at Newnham Bridge, near Tenbury Wells.

Every year since has been a year of heartache.

"You don't expect to bury your own child - it leaves a huge void in your life," she said, as she once again urged others not to drink and drive, not at this time of year - not at any time of year.

Shut your eyes and imagine for a moment that your child - or partner, or parent - has been killed because someone thought they could "handle a drink" and climbed behind the wheel of a car.

It is only by imagining such horrors that we can appreciate the heart-wrenching tragedies faced by innocent families every year.

Hopefully, this can in turn lead to a change in people's attitudes.

One for the road is always one too many - this year, it could be you, your family or your friends that suffers.