Drink Driving

[Earl]

It's been in the news today about England rugby player Mike Tindall getting done for drink driving. He was pulled over the morning after getting shitfaced on a load of booze apparently.

The story seemed to raise the question of driving after a night of drinking, I heard some people comment on how he should know better and it was obvious that you shouldn't drive the day after drinking. The thing is how the fuck do you know? I accept that he's broken the law, he was caught pure and simple. And possibly he did know full well he shouldn't be on the road, if the amount he's supposed to have drunk is true then he might have been still pissed the morning after. But regarding driving the next day in general I think most people do it for one simple reason, when you wake up the next day you feel sober!

They quoted figures on the radio that one in five drink driving convictions are people who were caught driving above the legal limit the morning after. What I want to know is the figure for accidents caused by driving the morning after? It's all very well saying people are above the legal limit, but what proof is there that it's dangerous?

The drink drive limit is a bit shit in my opinion, I've heard of people getting done the morning after when they are pretty much sober, yet other people I know have been clearly drunk and got away with a breathaliser test.

To properly stamp out drink driving they need to make any amount of alcohol illegal, then everyone knows the score. But this is another case of people being legislated against because of the minority of arseholes.

I can't abide these smart arses that tell you that just drinking half a pint impairs your driving, everyone is different. I can't comment on the Mike Tindall case properly, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that someone like a great daft rugby player, who's probably built up quite an tolerance to booze could be quite capable of driving the day after a few pints.

One expert on the radio claimed that anyone drinking two or three pints of lager would not be fit to drive the morning after, or at least would not be legal to drive. But tons of people do exactly that every morning, so just how much of a hazard is it?

[Ben]

The morning after driving thing is a very difficult subject. The law expects someone to know that their alcohol levels are below a certain limit, most people have no way of knowing that.

There are sober OAPs on the roads who are much more dangerous than me after I've have six pints. I'm not saying I should be driving after six pints, but if they're more dangerous as me why are they allowed to drive?

[Loulou]

To properly stamp out drink driving they need to make any amount of alcohol illegal, then everyone knows the score.

I agree with you by and large. I've driven on a couple of occasions the morning after a heavy night and when I've actually worked out how much alcohol would probably still be in my system (1 unit = 1 hour or some such 'technical' equation) I'd have been well over but I don't think for a second it impaired my driving.

As for the above, the problem with a zero alcohol is that you can get a positive reading from someone who has only eaten an apple as it can ferment in your stomach! Fair enough a blood test will settle that problem but think of the expense involved!

[Ck]

The breathalisers are a weird way of saying whether someone is fit and safe to drive or not.

I think they should revamp and reintroduce road side tests if you're under the suspicion of drink driving, the one's where you have to walk in a straight line and so on. If you fail them then go on to do a breath test but only if you fail.

If you're aware of what the road side tests involve it'll be easy for you to test yourself the morning after the night before - if you fail them yourself then don't take the risk of driving.

[Ben]

I think morning after people are generally safe unless they look obviously to be driving badly and the cops notice, then they're probably still affected anyway.

Just don't get smashed into, they'll breathalyse you if you get into any kind of accident, regardless of whose fault it may have been.

A guy I once worked with was driving to work one day and was hit by a speeding car that jumped a red light. He was slightly over the limit when brethalysed and he was the one who lost his licence.