Post on Drunk driving

Pelican170

Not to be taken the wrong way, but the majority of people who have drinks drive. Look at every bar thats filled with people, ill tell ya now, they arent drinking apple juice in there lol. Hell, they even have drinking driving limits (0.08).

Its one thing to drink and drive sensibly, its another to be drunk and driving....

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shadoquad

But the point is that (according to the law, don't blame me) when you get to that magic BAC number, you are now lacking in judgment to determine when you've hit your limit. So, because alcohol inhibits judgment, when do you reach the point where you are now drunk and can no longer "drive sensibly"? And even if you think you're at the point over the limit where you can still do that, alcohol consumption decreases motor function and response time, so if there is an emergency situation, you may not react in time to prevent it.

That's the theory, at least. The fact that people ignore the law doesn't make it right.

Jjaden

This....

There's nothing wrong with having a couple drinks and driving, problems arrise when someone get's off work, skips dinner, has 4-5 beers and hops behind the wheel.

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shadoquad

My point is that drunks are a terrible judge of whether or not they've overdone it. What's the line between drunk and slightly buzzed, and where on that scale does "reasonably sober to drive" fall?

I'm sure there's a better way to determine driving fitness than just the standard .08, but I doubt we'll ever see that changed. In the meantime, people just blithely ignore the law, and we wind up with numerous deaths as a result, probably from somebody who thought they could handle what they drank.

TheGreatOne

And Blue370tt, really sorry to see what happened to you. You are essentially the kind of person I am referring to, someone who unfortuantely has been on the wrong end of something to do with a drunk driver, so any form of it really is not funny in the least

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Jjaden

This brings to mind a whole other argument.

There was a recent study that consisted of a control group of individuals drink 6 beers in 30min. then drive an obstacle course with pylons.

A second control group involved people on cell phones, required to maintain conversation and answer questions while on the phone taking the same course.

The people on the phones performed MUCH worse....

You won't do jail time if you hit someone while on your cell, because it's socially acceptable even if it's illegal in some states but it's proven to be much more dangerous.

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shadoquad

So just because distracted driving is bad, driving with a number of drinks in you is ok? I disagree.

As far as distracted driving, phones are just the tip of the iceberg and have been for years. People do a lot of stupid stuff while driving. How much of it can/should we legislate? I think license tests ought to be reissued every five years. You should be periodically retested for driving fitness, because that changes over time, in my opinion. But should police pull people over because they're applying makeup, eating a pastry, etc?

Or should people start taking responsibility for their driving habits? Abstaining from alcohol if you know you're driving, staying off the phone, pulling over to look at maps, etc, etc.

Zaggeron

You are right in that other forms of impaired driving are tough to legislate. There's a large emotional component involved as these couple of threads have shown. Somehow people think a driver is more culpable for causing an accident while drunk than for causing an accident for some other impaired driving reason -- tired, cell phone, etc. In my opinion, in both sorts of cases the driver is equally cuplible.

There's a real sense in which the focus on "drunk driving" and "zero tolerance" actually makes things worse. Instead of using police resources to discover people who are a true danger to themselves and others, they play the game of numbers and politics -- getting 10 borderline cases off the road is better press than removing 5 seriously intoxicated folk.

I think we can all agree that if we can't catch all of them, it is better to catch the ones that pose the most risk, but checkpoints don't do that and zero tolerance doesn't do that.

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shadoquad

Jjaden

Sorry I think you misunderstood. I didn't try to defend drinking and driving, but to draw attention to just how much driving on a cellphone affects your driving.

I was shocked to hear it was worse than downing a 6-pack.

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Pelican170

6 drink in 30 minutes will get you hammered! lol

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