AS usual on this site, self-righteousness and smugness in the answers is evident.
Sorry to hear about your plight OP, best to just do the d/d course and accept the 3 month ban (in 1995, my friend was 1mg [yes 1mg] over the limit and he had a 12 month ban) and learn from your mistake! Just phone aroung and go on the internet to find an insurance quote, might no be as bad as you think!
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And then ask your "friends" to pay the difference.
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Beware the morning after too,friend of mine got pulled over the day after a night out,he thought he was sober,he found he wasn,t.
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Nick Freeman if you've got a spare £10k in your pocket.
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Just take it on the chin, it's an absolute offence, 3 months isn't that long. I think trying to fight it in court and getting your friends in to give evidence will just cost you money, stress and get you nowhere. In my opinion the mags automaticaly think you are scum the moment you step in to that dock, save your energy and move on a bit older and wiser.
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It's not an absolute offence.
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Does't the rehabilitation course knock just a third off the disqualification period , not two thirds as is stated by Ranj?
--
Fullchat
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..Does't the rehabilitation course knock just a third off the disqualification period , not two thirds as is stated by Ranj? -- Fullchat
actually, afaik, it knocks a quarter off : 3 months off the 12 months, to give a 9 months resultant ban.
( which is why i questioned lud about the o.p. 's view that it was t he otherway around ).
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I'm surprised it's not an absolute offence, you're either over or you're not?
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I have to say, and it has been expressed here a bit, that there is a huge amount of chest beating and wailing when it comes to drink driving offences. When we get down to it, just how many people were killed or seriously injured by druken drivers? HOw much of a serious problem was it or is still? Far worse crimes are comitted on our roads (and it has to be said off the roads) with pathetic levels of deterence.
The government has done an excelent job in turning drink driving into social leper levels but could and should this effort have been better directed?
Discuss
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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... just how many people were killed or seriously injured by druken drivers?
The killed and seriously injured stats have dropped very significantly over the past few decades, due in part to improved car design. I suspect the public campaigns to make drink driving taboo have helped significantly. I found some stats here:
www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/xsdataset.asp?More=...6
According to the above, if I interpret it correctly, the number of drink related driving deaths was about 1030 in 1986 dropping to 490 in 1998. However it is not clear how many of the deaths involved a drunk pedestrian hit by a sober driver and similar incidents where the driver was not drunk. Drunk pedestrians must make up a significant number of the deaths.
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"I'm surprised it's not an absolute offence, you're either over or you're not?"
One of the many defences for DD is the so called "hip flask defence" (i.e. claiming to have consumed intoxicatns after the event), in fairmess the OP is looking for a defence that has succeded many times in the past.
Absolute Offences are the the types of offence where ther eis no defence in law, No Insurance is one of them.
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Ah, I see, the OP was mistaken and thought reduced BY three months meant reduced TO three months. Of course I have no idea what the normal arrangements are and defer to people's superior knowledge and experience (bows and scrapes a bit).
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And very well said TVM.
Every time I try to make these sort of points I see the gleam of telescopic sights among the trees and hear the faint clicking of rifle bolts... and is this a pink laser spot homing in on my chest?
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AS usual on this site, self-righteousness and smugness in the answers is evident. >>
Matched only by indifference, complacency and arrogance. :- l
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... When we get down to it, just how many people were killed or seriously injured by druken drivers? HOw much of a serious problem was it or is still? ...
tvm:
i don't know. do you?
so is the good safety record you and lud allude to because of the dd laws, or is it despite or irrespective of the dd laws?
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Hard to sort out isn't it? How many people have been killed in UK, by handguns, since they were banned post Dunblane? My guess would be more but perhaps is the persception I get from the way gun crime is reported these days. There seems to be a lot about but it is hard to tell.
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I also agree with TVM.
It's becoming almost a crime to ask for a rational debate, and the consideration of many kinds of statistics surrounding 'drink driving' - and it isn't actually illegal to drink and drive!
I too want to know how we as a society can greatly lessen or eliminate drunk driving. As I've grown older I've swung away from thinking 'there but for the grace of God' to 'what transport arrangements can I make to enjoy myself without fear of ever being tempted to drive whilst drunk.
I've always found there's a teetotaller in most groups or gatherings, or someone on a diet who drinks diet coke etc. If not, I do the maths calculations as to what my licence is worth and the sheer shame of being 'done' - it's never failed me yet to convince me that £30 on a cab is a bargain by comparison.
Why are some folk tempted to do it? Is it the wrong kind of policing these days? Does a little bit of alcohol actually improve your driving? A zero limit has its pitfalls too. maybe we've got it about right and social pressure will make it die eventually?
Let's have reasoned debate for sure, but all this witch-hunting, macho posturing puts me right off...
R
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Too complicated for them Rumfitt. People fear personal responsibility and personal judgement. They find absolute rules reassuring. There's nothing to be done about it. Some are just like that, others just aren't.
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>>t's becoming almost a crime to ask for a rational debate, and the consideration of many kinds of statistics surrounding 'drink driving' -
and it isn't actually illegal to drink and drive!
I think it is - drink then drive is still ok though - within the prescribed limit - can't see a problem myself - and I do like a drink.
The limit , if memory serves, equates to about 2 pints of 4-4.5 ABV beer in an 'average' male body. I believe (don't we all though) my tolerance
is quite high through habituation - but I do notice judgement & motor skills (of the nervous kind) still start deteriorate in me
at around the 2pint mark. The problem with the libertarian view, if I can paraphrase the jist of some previous posters, is that it relies
on all people having a sense of responsibilty & proportion - if all people don't the result is worse for all. We see the same
connumdrum in the traffic calming debate & indeed in most laws.
The law copes with the lowest common moral denominator, always has.
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Sound, if depressing, sense woodbines I'm afraid.
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The limit , if memory serves, equates to about 2 pints of 4-4.5 ABV beer in an 'average' male body.
I have heard that too, but to be honest, after two pints I am decidedly relaxed. It does seem quite a high limit, though I suppose it affects different people differently. These days I will have half a pint, or a bottle of beer, if I drive to the local for a pub lunch with colleagues, but no more.
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part of the problem today is all beers especially bottled ones try to outdo each other in specific gravity (strongness?) so you have to be careful
personally i would rather drink a coke if ive nominated myself to be the party bore
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