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Alcohol and cars do not mix do one or the other but never both its amazing how everything becomes clearer when you stop drinking a life driving ban for DD would be start.
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Just remember that you may only have had a couple and think you're safe but you'll still be breathalysed when someone stoned out of their mind drives into you.
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As a convicted drink driver I feel I can comment on this. Always assuming you don't have an accident-and if you are thinking of driving the chances are you are confident you will not have an accident- the other downsides were/are:
1)shame
2)dependency on public transport
3)possible loss of job/income
4)possible break up of relationship
Even if you despise taxis/minicabs, its not worth the risk. These are the points you need to get across to your mates.
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I have only been breathalysed once when involved in a slight accident on my motorbike in London with a car driver who undertook me on the Embankment in London at about 8 am in the morning and hit my indicator.
He undertook me because I was travelling at the speed limit because I had spotted a Police Motorcyclist ahead.
The Policeman witnessed the incident and stopped us both , the car driver was breathalysed and arrested on the spot. He had stopped drimking he said at 11 pm the previoud night, nine hours before. His girl friend was in the car and was also over the limit so she was not allowed to drive the car .Not having touched alcohol for two days I was allowed on my way.
I do now consider very seriously my alcohol intake in an evening if I am driving the next day and actively discourage any friends who visit for a party or dinner from having any alcohol if they are driving that evening or indeed early next day.
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i think ive mentioned this before but here goes, i FAILED a roadside breathtest the day AFTER i had been drinking , got arrested and taken to the nearest police station it took about an hour , i then had to provide 2 specs of breath for the machine at the nick, passed both , they gave me a cup of tea and a fag and my keys .... so just a word of warning , drink plenty of water and have a very long break between bottle and throttle .... merry christmas every one
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A friend of our son has just been banned for drink driving - and he wasn't actually driving! Be warned what you can be done for.
His van had broken down and so he got in the back to wait until the next day - his dad works for a garage so would have come for him with a low loader. His mistake was to be caught drinking in the back by the police. Note he was in the back of the van which has no access to the cabin from within - it's entirely enclosed.
So no license and therefore no job - he had a gardening business, hence the van. He's lost it for 3 years too so probably way over the limit!
I also knew of someone else who decided to sleep in the back of his car because he'd been drinking and couldn't get home - it was not planned. Police breathalysed him and they too lost their license.... So we have to be careful if we just go to the car with keys because that can be taken as intending to drive. Could get caught outside your house without ever getting in the driver's seat.
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In the situation of sleeping in the car, if you hid the keys and denied knowing where they were would you still be technically in charge of the vehicle?
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Most people drink and drive. Most people try not to drink too much when they are driving. Most people with driving licences are adults who don't need or have to be chivvied about this. So it is very rare for me to mention this matter to fellow carousers or have it mentioned to me. If someone looks a bit dishevelled one might murmur: 'Are you sure?' before giving them another drink.
I have been breathalysed four or five times over the years. Sometimes on the borderline but never quite over. Mind you in years gone by I could easily have been unlucky. But I am more careful these days. I drink more regularly but less. It's an age thing.
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[ broken down car/drink driving ]
Itr sounds to me as though a) he didn't take legal advice, and/or b) he'd already got a dirty licence.
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Suggestion (hope this doesn't sound too much like an entry in Viz "Letterbocks") Set up a huge, inviting "drivers' trolley" of non alcoholic drinks - beers, wines, cordials and litres and litres of mineral water. If there's plenty of food on offer (i.e. no one spends the whole evening just drinking) and plenty of non-alcoholic alternatives, what more can you do? At the end of the day, it's up to the driver...
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(i.e. no one spends the whole evening just drinking)
You have obviously led a sheltered life Bilboman.....
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I did get very annoyed at someone who gave me and a couple of friends a lift to the pub, then over the course of the evening drank two pints and a double whiskey, and then drove us home.
The others were more than happy to get in the car with him, although I was uncomfortable with the idea. Unfortunately, not accepting the lift would have meant no ride home.
I did confront him about it the next day and was pretty straight with my thoughts. Can passengers expect to be carted off down to the police station along with the driver if the car is stopped and they're found to be over the limit?
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I did confront him about it the next day and was pretty straight with my thoughts.
Was he pretty straight with his response? Mine would have been along the lines of "{Blasphemous comment removed} , are you taking the pink fluffy dice? I gave you a free lift to and from, you didn't have to take it! If I was that bad how come you still got in the car with me! I will never offer you another lift again!"
Can passengers expect to be carted off down to the police station along with the driver if the car is stopped and they're found to be over the limit?
No! Just left at the side of the road to arrange other means of transport.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 20/12/2007 at 18:21
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Tee hee pendulum.
I couldn't help wondering whether David Horn's roistering buddy was noticeably frightening on the way home from the pub. My guess is not.
As one raised in a far more relaxed era, I find it puzzling that people these days don't have to perceive any actual imminent physical threat to their precious little pink bottoms to become indignant and self-righteous. The mere presence of an alleged theoretical threat, however ill-founded and preposterous, is enough to send them into paroxysms of infantile rage. Makes me laugh really.
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I am very relaxed about drinking. It so happens I don't but that's a personal choice. As I hope I made clear in the OP I would not wish to curtail anyones' fun or spoil their evening but I just wanted to see if anyone had any clever ways of ...politely...mentioning to others that they may wish to consider an alternative method of getting home.
Drink driving does not send me into paroxysms of rage but nor does its discussion make me laugh. Some 20 years ago my best friend was killed by a drink driver. I just don't want that to happen to anyone else I know. That's all.
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Drink driving does not send me into paroxysms of rage but nor does its discussion make me laugh.
I didn't mean you shoespy, or David Horn come to that. I don't suspect either of you of misplaced self-righteous indignation. But I have seen a bit of it in the back room.
And of course that is what makes me laugh, not rational (or even emotional) discussion of driving with a blood-alcohol level of more than zero.
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Fair enough Lud. It's just a bit of an "open wound" with me at this time of year I'm afraid.
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I see where you're coming from on this, Lud, but the key thing with alcohol is that it stuffs up your decision making. I wasn't particularly worried about my safety. If he'd set off and I'd felt genuinely scared, I'd have said something.
Aren't a huge proportion of road deaths caused by drunk drivers? It's quite strange in a way that drink driving is blamed on the younger generation. This guy was under 20, but I'm only 22 and the group of friends I had at uni would NEVER entertain the idea of having even one drink and driving.
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SNIPQUOTE!I did confront him about it the next day and was pretty straight with my thoughts. Can passengers expect to be carted off down to the police station along with the driver if the car is stopped and they're found to be over the limit?
Have to say that, even if it meant having to phone for a taxi, there's simply no way I would get into a car that's being driven by someone who I know to have been drinking. I value my life (and my family's needs) too much.
P.S. I even "shopped" my own brother-in-law AND his wife - got both banned. If you cannot do without drink, do the sensible thing - surrender your driving license.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 21/12/2007 at 10:22
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"If you cannot do without drink, do the sensible thing - surrender your driving license."
It is a requirment to inform the DVLA of any medical condition that would affect driving,addiction to alcohol or drugs included.Alcoholics are usually required to surrender their licence until such time as a medical examination shows that they are no longer dependant on drink.
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I did get very annoyed at someone who gave me and a couple of friends a lift to the pub then over the course of the evening drank two pints and a double whiskey and then drove us home.
It is quite possible that he would have been under the limit.
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(i.e. no one spends the whole evening just drinking)
You have obviously led a sheltered life Bilboman.....
I suppose I have. What I meant to say is that no one HAS to spend 8 hours doing nothing but drinking. All comes down to peer pressure - and how some people deal with it - I guess...
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I don't understand how someone can be convicted even if he was not actually driving then!
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"It sounds to me as though a) he didn't take legal advice, and/or b) he'd already got a dirty licence. "
Option (A) probably but he was in the vehicle with keys.... but the car had broken down so nobody could drive it. So again (a) and he's kept fingers crossed and lost. A decent brief and he should have been okay. Pretty stupid not fighting this.
As for...
"I don't understand how someone can be convicted even if he was not actually driving then!"
Think you'll find if the police believe you had an intent to drive you're also going to get done. DVD or someone else might correct me but if you're over the limit and go to the car be very sure you are fit to drive. Lesson to us all really. A "sobering" thought.
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>>Freakybacon
>>As a convicted drink driver I feel I can comment on this....
>>
1)shame
2)dependency on public transport
3)possible loss of job/income
4)possible break up of relationship
Aspects that do not seem to get mentioned in the press.
A). As mentioned previously, if some one hits you then you get tested too.
B). Difficulty of getting another job that includes driving ?
C). Cost of insurance once you are able to drive again.
If you can find a company to insure you, (I would expect not many competative quotes for your business) how much does it cost? Premium loading, minimum excess, time to regain NCB, time to get back to normal ( if ever) rates.
freakybacon or anyone else able to comment on the above with real figures?
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Perhaps this recent article from the bbc would be enlightening:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7130944.stm
Edited by AlastairW on 20/12/2007 at 18:59
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Well here in Glasgow there is a huge police presence every morning. In fact at one area this morning near the Gorbals there were 10 police motorcyclists "randomly" pulling people over.
Every morning I have seen a collection of motorcyclists pulling people over. Not sure if it was just local advertising, but the Police here are saying they will breathalyse everyone that have even a blown bulb on their car.
--
2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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I believe the police in Glasgow are very hot on stops anyway. Mate of mine is a medic up in Glasgow, and has a little old Clio that he uses as a run-about for getting to work.
He's been stopped several times on night time calls into the hospital - he was fairly gobsmacked that, even when he explained he really needed to go and get an emergency head-CT done on a critical patient, the police weren't interested and took their time checking him and his car.
They found nothing amiss, but even offers of them accompanying him so that they could do the checks afterwards fell on deaf ears. Apparently the patient was eventually okay, but no thanks to that particular set of plod.
Edited by Gordon M on 21/12/2007 at 10:55
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A mate of mine got stopped yesterday morning. It was the night after his darts team's Xmas party but because he knew he had a busy day (including a tooth extraction) ahead, (his tooth btw, he's not a dentist!) he decided not to drink. The police were at the bottom of his road pulling everyone over and of course he passed ok. The irony is, he decided not to drink because of his own personal issues, & not because he was bothered about being over the limit the next day, and possibly causing an accident.
Myself? I'm lucky because I actually don't mind drinking non-alcoholic lager, it tastes just the same & no hangover the next day!! I have hidden someone's keys once before & gave them to the landlord of his local. He gave them back the next day, saying they were found on the floor of the pub & some kindly soul handed them in.
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I didn't drink at all at the company Xmas do and was almost disappointed in a way not to be stopped on the way home - in fact didn't see a single police car in the entire 35 mile journey.
ps one of the worst hang-overs I've ever had was after drinking alcohol free lager! I stick to fresh orange and lemonade in a pint glass.
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I once tried alcohol-free lager. It tasted quite bad and gave me a headache before the end of half a pint. Evil stuff.
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Read
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7147803.stm
Inwardly digest.
Act acordingly.
Have a safe one.
dvd
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"Read news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7147803.stm Act accordingly."
Quote from that item
" fool-proof way ... not drink and drive .... simply to do one or the other."
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