DRINKERS in Vale pubs this Christmas will be confronted by the image of a man in a wheelchair staring back at them from their beer mats.

Worcestershire resident Ed Walsh, who has been a wheelchair-user since being hit by a drink-driver 16 years ago, features in West Mercia Constabulary's Christmas drink-drive campaign -- 'Did your hear about the guy who had one for the road? I met him" -- which hopes to hammer home the impact that drinking and driving has on people's lives.

Ed, who now runs a specialist wheelchair seating clinic, was aged 21 when he was hit by a drink-driver as he went to lock up the offices where he worked in Dublin. He received spinal damage in the crash and became a paraplegic.

It changed his life forever. He was trained as an engineer, but could not go back to his previous career after the crash and decided to further his education by going to University College in Dublin to study psychology and philosophy.

He then spent an extra year training as a wheelchair seating technician on a course run by Cerebral Palsy Ireland, before travelling to Birmingham to continue his studies, where he focused on postural management, rehab engineering and biomechanical engineering.

He will feature on beer mats and posters being distributed to pubs across Worcestershire as well as appearing in cinema adverts and radio commercials, which begin next Monday.

He said: "I wholeheartedly support the powerful message that West Mercia police is using this year and I am keen to make people understand the lasting effects that drink-drivers have on other people's lives, as well as their own.

"If I can stop one person drinking and driving, then my involvement in this campaign will be worthwhile."

A total of 2,249 people were arrested for drink-drive related offences in the force area between January and December 2001, the equivalent of six people every day of the year.

During the last Christmas and New Year period alone, more than five per cent of drivers involved in crashes across the force area were drink-drivers. During that time, 12 people died and 394 were injured in collisions on roads in the same area, and 125 people were arrested in connection with drink-driving offences during last year's festive season.

Sergeant John Roberts, West Mercia's casualty reduction manager, said: "Drinking and driving is unacceptable but a hard core of motorists continue to ignore the effects it can have on their own, as well as other people's lives.

"Traditionally, drivers aged between 35 and 55 have been most likely to drink and drive, but there is now a national trend of younger people increasingly committing this offence.

"We want to ensure that the number of people drinking and driving continues to fall."