Drinking and Driving ?

[SimpleSimon]

Having lost a daughter at age 19 to a drunk driver (his fifth arrest) I say we have a choice, drive or drink, not both. ZERO tolerance is my preference. Some countries do have zero tolerance. That eliminates the question of how well a guy holds his liquor, it doesn't matter.....any alcohol at all would be illegal.
Woody

In all honesty, Woody, I agree. Having dragged 3 friends out of a river because of drinking and driving while in high school, having attended 3 more memorial services for friends killed by drunk driving (only one of the friends having been loaded herself, and she wasn't the driver) while in college, and having lost family and friends over the years since, I despise the mindset that lets some fool tell him/herself it is okay to drink and drive.


I am often the "designated driver" because I will NOT tolerate someone else driving drunk if I can stop them. I've taken keys away from friends and acquaintances, and once spent the night in jail because the cops who responded to the ensuing fight didn't want to bother sorting it out. Got released with an apology the next day when the guy I took the keys from sobered up and admitted the cause of the fight.

One beer, or one glass of wine, or one mixed drink is my absolute limit, and I rarely finish any of them. I like the stuff too much, I know I do, and I refuse to be a slave to stupidity.

 

[Al.Fisherman]

Having lost a daughter at age 19 to a drunk driver (his fifth arrest) I say we have a choice, drive or drink, not both. ZERO tolerance is my preference. Some countries do have zero tolerance. That eliminates the question of how well a guy holds his liquor, it doesn't matter.....any alcohol at all would be illegal.
Woody

Anyone and I mean anyone driving under the influence, and kills someone should hang at the gallows the next day. Want him to be sober so he can feel the rope snap his neck. I have ZERO sympathy for drunk drivers...never lost someone to a drunk but my Dad is a reformed alcoholic of 27 years.

Simon...I'm with you. We go out in the gulf to fish. I have friends that oun boats that I go with. Those that drink either will ask me to captain the boat when we are around other boats (I have a 25" Cabin Cruiser) or if I feel the need take over they let me. I love a beer or two, but always end up being the DD, through desire. I don't want a drinker to kill me and I don't want one of them killed either.

 

[arkives1]

Drinking and driving?

Ahhh, obviously Simon is not simple. Well said. And I agree with Ron as well. I am usually the DD, and like Ron, I have taken keys away. One night a saw a man stumbling to his car obviously drunk, he was having trouble getting the key in the door. I offered to help and he handed me the keys, which I pocketed and told him he could pick them up at the bar up the street the next day. He protested of course and I left him sitting on the curb cussing. A bit later I heard his car start and drive away, apparently he had a second key and finally remembered where it was. The next day I dropped his keys off at the bar and that afternoon the mans wife came to my home and said "Thank you, you may have slowed him down enough to save his life" Maybe, maybe not. I never heard from him of course. In my opinion, drunks don't drive a car or anything else, they just sorta aim it down the road.
At the time my daughter and her fiancee were killed (New Years Eve) Wisconsins maximum penalty was 5 years for each count of intoxicated fatalities. He got 10 years for the two he killed and an additional 17 years for ramming a police car attempting to escape (attempted homicide) The penalities have doubled since then but we still have way too many drunk drivers.
Woody

 

[SimpleSimon]

When I was in the fifth grade I was supposed to go on a day hike with the local Boy Scout troop. They gathered pre-dawn in the parking lot at the local post office to depart for the hike - I was running late because my Mom's car wouldn't start. We arrived at the Post Office just after the first ambulance got there.

A drunk, on a straight and level county road veered off the pavement and plowed through the crowd of boys and adults gathered there. Five dead lads, and one dead adult - thirteen more people hospitalized. Oregon law at that time had no provisions categorizing vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, or even increasing penalties for drunk driving accidents. The guy driving killed 6 people, maimed 4 more, and injured an additional 9, and was convicted of 7 counts of negligent manslaughter, sentenced to the maximum under then extant law - 20 years.

He only served ten years, then was released to parole to reside at his parents home in that little rural community. He never got there - disappeared enroute. He was listed as a parole violator, and warrants were issued for him as being on escape. In 1982 the Molalla River flooded, and damaged a bridge pier on the Mulino to Canby road. In the course of repairing the bridge they cleared all the years of accumulated brush from beneath the bridge, and they found his skeletal remains. Every bone on that skeleton that matched a bone he broke on one of those boys or their fathers was broken.

Once the skeletal remains were identified, the homicide investigation slowed essentially to a halt.

There can be justice, sometimes. The cost is high.

 

[Al.Fisherman]

Simon....I love a story with a HAPPY ending.....

 

[machiasmort]

I have no problem w/ zero tollerance. So long as it's equally enforced, which is far from what goes on here in NY.

I attended drunkard school here in Buffalo, out of 50 of "the biggest idiots on the road", I was shocked to learn only one was a female... Hmmm, guess girls don't drink and drive until they can't cover it up? Nor do judges cops or politicians.

Zero tollerance means zero...

 

[arkives1]

Drinking and Driving

Simon....I love a story with a HAPPY ending.....

HAHAHAHAHA Ron, you are one funny man! That truly was a happy ending though. Thanks for that one Simon.
Woody

 

[Al.Fisherman]

I have no problem w/ zero tollerance. So long as it's equally enforced, which is far from what goes on here in NY.

I attended drunkard school here in Buffalo, out of 50 of "the biggest idiots on the road", I was shocked to learn only one was a female... Hmmm, guess girls don't drink and drive until they can't cover it up? Nor do judges cops or politicians.

Zero tollerance means zero...

Agree...That POS Kennedy should of been hung publicly in the center of Boston Commons. Then the Bulls Finch could really be renamed to CHEERS.

 

[will_start]

ok,

Here's a question for the legal minds.

If you're caught over the limit on your bicycle.

Do they cancel your car license ?

Answers for USA and Australian Laws please.

 

[Al.Fisherman]

ok,

Here's a question for the legal minds.

If you're caught over the limit on your bicycle.

Do they cancel your car license ?

Answers for USA and Australian Laws please.

If you get caught riding ANYTHING (motorized) including a lawn mower on the PUBLIC roads...Yes..a DUI and the possibility of both loss of license (if you have one) and or jail time.

Bicycle..no motor..public drunkenness... DUI's pertain to motorized vehicles.