Drink driving

[Pie 1]

It's interesting to look at how attitudes towards alcohol have shifted over the last few decades, and not only in terms of driving. I was reading a bit of James Herriot the other night: he quite regularly - in the '50s - had a few pints before driving out to a farm, performing an operation and then driving home again. Nowadays we'd be horrified if a vet (or doctor) turned up smelling of beer: back then, it was just accepted.


I remember how a young lecturer when I was an undergrad made some comment on the 'old school' of lecturers who had six pints at lunchtime before doing afternoon lectures.

I remember my grandad & I talking about this in the late 80's just after I'd passed my test.
He'd used to work A&E through the 40's, 50's & 60's in Liverpool near the docks & said that day in day out they were dealing with work related injuries caused by 'liquid lunches' - crane operators & dockers, lorry drivers with 6 pints inside them etc - which is when you remember how physical it was to opperate vehicles & machinery in that era.

On the liquid lunches thing, I've just never been able to handle it - period. If I have a pint at lunchtime I'm done for the rest of the day.

Btw, I've just seen one of the new DD ad's. Good angle to come at it from, but a shit ad unfortunatly. No impact IMO.

 

[Sunray]

I think the law at a single, 4% pint is pretty low and reasonable. It allows people who have liver problems and therefore some alcohol in their blood to drive.

More effective policy on Drink driving would be to have dedicated units like they do in NZ. They have complete mobile police stations with blood testing and jails. They randomly set up road blocks and test a large percentage, if not everyone coming down the road.

Fear of getting caught is what stops people doing it, irrespective of the alcohol limits.

 

[fela fan]

So i see that drink drivers are still seen as marginally less worse in british society than paedophiles.

It is a wee bit more complicated than is being discussed here.

I return to england for a holiday from time to time and i guarantee i drive better after four pints than most people. I cannot believe how fast everyone is driving, and how angry they get if they can't drive in just the way they want to drive. And the impatience is another thing.

And then there's the people driving while they've got the flu or a bad cold. Then there's the old biddies who are still driving, but should have stopped ages ago.

Then there's the alternative forms of transport: ie none save for a taxi that's going to cost more than the night out in the pub itself.

Then there's the fact that british culture and society pivots itself around the pub (not surprising there since the country has the best pubs by far in the world), and alcohol, and, especially, the buying of rounds. People often end up having to have more drinks than they'd prefer due to being in a round.

And then there's the fact that no-one is really allowed to know exactly how many they can have. In australia the government informs the amount that one can drink and still drive, how long it takes for the body to process and get rid of each drink and so on. The info is always in the pub.

I totally agree that if you're drunk, you don't drive. But how can we define what 'drunk' is?

I'd love to see how the stats break down for drink-driving crashes. What %age do just the drivers get hurt? What %age are committed by, not drunk drivers, but blind drunk drivers? How many people die or get maimed as a result of some stranger crashing into them while drunk? And what about the same stat, but from drivers who proved to be sober, but just bad drivers?

There's a lot to debate on this topic, and i see the simplistic level of debate has changed none since i left the country nearly 20 years ago.

String em up and put em in the same cell as the paedos. That'll save our society.

 

[cesare]

String em up and put em in the same cell as the paedos. That'll save our society.

Maybe not. But it would have saved my sister.

 

[The Groke]

dp

 

[The Groke]

i guarantee i drive better after four pints than most people.

lols


I am pretty confident that 99% of drink drivers say that very same thing to themselves moments before they plough into a pedestrian......

I totally agree that if you're drunk, you don't drive. But how can we define what 'drunk' is?

You can't define it accurately for each individual, therefore as people's lives are at stake, you have to draw a line under the lowest common denominator and stick to it.

Far better to err on the side of caution wouldn't you agree?

I really don't see the problem with setting a low, low limit (to allow for those who have eaten Tiramisu over dinner or whatever) and sticking to it.

 

[The Groke]

I'd love to see how the stats break down for drink-driving crashes. What %age do just the drivers get hurt? What %age are committed by, not drunk drivers, but blind drunk drivers? How many people die or get maimed as a result of some stranger crashing into them while drunk? And what about the same stat, but from drivers who proved to be sober, but just bad drivers?

I don't see how any of that is relevant when considering drink driving limits and associated law.

 

[Limejuice]

People who habitually drink-drive will not give a damn how low the limit goes.

All it will do is discourage people who want to go out, have a meal, drink sensibly, or force them to shell out for taxis.

Unless there are compelling benefits to society to offset the erosion of people's freedom to enjoy themselves, leave the limits alone.

 

[chymaera]

I return to england for a holiday from time to time and i guarantee i drive better after four pints than most people. .

Frankly you are a complete, total and utter idiot.

 

[detective-boy]

And then there's the fact that no-one is really allowed to know exactly how many they can have. In australia the government informs the amount that one can drink and still drive, how long it takes for the body to process and get rid of each drink and so on. The info is always in the pub.

It'll be misleading then. There's no secret. It's just that it is impossible to say because of the number of variables:

http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=2096

 

[chymaera]

It'll be misleading then. There's no secret. It's just that it is impossible to say because of the number of variables:

Quite, I know someone who failed a breathalyser, backed up by a blood test, three days after a stag party.

 

[MikeMcc]

Should be zero blood alcohol. Pretty simple message then: not one or two pints. None.

Unfortunately it can't be done, there is a natural level of alcohol in the body even with no drinks in you.

 

[Giles]

People who habitually drink-drive will not give a damn how low the limit goes.

All it will do is discourage people who want to go out, have a meal, drink sensibly, or force them to shell out for taxis.

Unless there are compelling benefits to society to offset the erosion of people's freedom to enjoy themselves, leave the limits alone.

Well said: lowering the limit is another headline-grabbing "initiative" by the government.

Changing laws (and introducing new laws) is easy.

It's actually enforcing them that is the harder bit.

Sadly the current lot don't seem to see this. Endless new laws and rules that more and more people (including the politicians themselves!) know that they can ignore.

This is overall not a good thing.

Giles..

 

[chymaera]

It's actually enforcing them that is the harder bit.
..

Breaking news today, a Chief Constable has been banned from driving for doing 90mph in a 60mph limit. It has made my day.

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

I think it'd be so much better if the law had a zero tolerance approach on this - ie. no alc in your system allowed at all.

WHilst i agree that no alcohol is the best approach the zero tollerence is not the way forward either, this means that out the night before and wel within the current limit the day after would mean jail/criminal record/fine/points for only beign stopped i do think however the perception should be changed from drunk driving to drink driving which would encourage people to think no amount of booze in the system is acceptable. This is a social problem, not a legislative one.

i also think as part of the drivng test before being given a licence you'd need to go on to a race track in a shitty knocked about car (with roll cage) and be drunk and attempt to drive a course with sudden sharp courners...

After that experince i guarenttee there'd not be a person with a licence who'd consider themselves fit to drive.

I have in the past driven carts a fair gorunds pissed on a little circuit.

the straights are fine you can just about cope even after about 1/2 a bottle of vodka it's the corners which fuck you up, every time you just cannot judge them. that and people over taking you startle the hell out of you...

saying that i have rriven on the roads once to get some one to hospital after the cracked their skull open and the ambulance was 45 mins away...

that has to be the most unpleasent, difficult and terrifing drive of my life, alchol and adrenalin really don't mix not even driving at 30 all the way...

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

I return to england for a holiday from time to time and i guarantee i drive better after four pints than most people.

I can absolutly guarentee you fucking don't hand in your british licence really do the world a favour it might be socially acceptable for some prat ex pat to tear around in the asiatics drunk behind the wheel if your own insitutionalised racism thinks you are better than they are and so you don't care however, when you come back to blighty have the common deceny to abide by our fucking rules. eh son...

 

[dirtysanta]

It's my experience that the older men are the biggest culprits.

i must agree.

 

[pogofish]

i guarantee i drive better after four pints than most people. .

You really don't want to know how often I have heard that (or very similar) trotted out as an excuse for drunk driving by some completely irresponsible pisshead cunt or other over the years.

Including one particular guy, a traffic officer who shortly after went out & managed to write-off 18 cars in one drunken accident & then tried to run away. Guess who got transferred to the shittiest town in the area once his sentence was sorted!

 

[chymaera]

You really don't want to know how often I have heard that (or very similar) trotted out as an excuse for drunk driving by some completely irresponsible pisshead cunt or other over the years.

Quite, there are several people I knew that should have had it carved on their gravestone.

 

[fela fan]

I can absolutly guarentee you fucking don't hand in your british licence really do the world a favour it might be socially acceptable for some prat ex pat to tear around in the asiatics drunk behind the wheel if your own insitutionalised racism thinks you are better than they are and so you don't care however, when you come back to blighty have the common deceny to abide by our fucking rules. eh son...

Who says i don't eh son? In fact i do. And in fact i've been breathalysed on four pints and passed it no problem. Thanks to the knowledge i gained from the way they deal with the topic in australia.

What the fuck are you on about institutionalised racism?

 

[fela fan]

You really don't want to know how often I have heard that (or very similar) trotted out as an excuse for drunk driving by some completely irresponsible pisshead cunt or other over the years.

I really don't give a stuff how many times you've heard that. Four pints in me is less than the limit in britain. And i'm nowhere near being pissed, nor being irresponsible.

There is too much hysteria over this topic in britain. That's my main point. It ain't gonna be popular, naturally, but that's not the basis for opinions.

Drink driving needs to be discussed in more depth. Drunk driving, yes, bung em in jail. But define drunk first.

 

[Crispy]

Four pints of what?

 

[cesare]

Who says i don't eh son? In fact i do. And in fact i've been breathalysed on four pints and passed it no problem. Thanks to the knowledge i gained from the way they deal with the topic in australia.

Why were you pulled over and breathalysed?

 

[Firky]

Couldn't give a toss if you drink then drive, crash you car and are killed. That's your stupid fault for doing it. However it is the poor fuckers in the car with you, on the road or on the pavements that are put at risk and danger because of your selfish behaviour. My bro' is a paramedic and the people who are killed or cabbaged through drink driving tend not to be those at the wheel but the ones they run into. Pedestrians and other road users.

Why do you risk doing this to a person because you fancy a few drinks?

 

[pengaleng]

LOL wtf is that!!!!!

look at its eyebaaals!!!!

and it's nose is like michael jackson lolz

 

[dirtysanta]

LOL wtf is that!!!!!

look at its eyebaaals!!!!

and it's nose is like michael jackson lolz

looks like hes been stabbed in face with a sharp tissue thats been left embeded in his chin

 

[chymaera]

There are some sick bastards on this thread, that is someone seriously damaged and you think it it funny.

 

[fela fan]

Four pints of what?

ale.

 

[fela fan]

Why were you pulled over and breathalysed?

Because i went through a one-way street the wrong way that is about 50 yards long. It was a serious short cut. Behind a parked white van on the right hand side was a police car. They stopped me, called up the breathalyser and tested me. Nothing. 8pm.

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

I really don't give a stuff how many times you've heard that. Four pints in me is less than the limit in britain. And i'm nowhere near being pissed, nor being irresponsible.

i'm nowhere near being pissed

yes you are

nor being irresponsible

yes you are

Four pints in me is less than the limit in britain.

no it's not.

the limit is 4 units.

One unit of alcohol is 10ml (1cl) by volume, or 8g by weight, of pure alcohol. For example:
one unit of alcohol is about equal to:
half a pint of ordinary strength beer, lager or cider (3-4% alcohol by volume), or
a small pub measure (25ml) of spirits (40% alcohol by volume), or
a standard pub measure (50ml) of fortified wine such as sherry or port (20% alcohol by volume).
there are one and a half units of alcohol in:
a small glass (125ml) of ordinary strength wine (12% alcohol by volume), or
a standard pub measure (35ml) of spirits (40% alcohol by volume).

But remember, many wines and beers are stronger than the more traditional 'ordinary' strengths. A more accurate way of calculating units is as follows. The percentage alcohol by volume (%abv) of a drink equals the number of units in one litre of that drink. For example:
Strong beer at 6% abv has six units in one litre. If you drink half a litre (500ml) - just under a pint - then you have had three units.
Wine at 14% abv has 14 units in one litre. If you drink a quarter of a litre (250ml) - two small glasses - then you have had three and a half units.

4 pints = 8 units = over the limit.