Tougher Penalties for Drink Driving

Kermitt

Just wondering what people think about this. I think the penalties for drink driving should be far harsher along with those for dangerous driving. The atttitude to these offences seems to be 'Ah sure it'll be grand'. Less Clamping of cars and more investment into perventing the carnage.

The OP

Zero tolerance - total lifetime ban. Because why not? If you don't want to get banned, then don't drink and drive. Quite simple.

jdwals

Second The OP's position on this one - you want to drive - then NO DRINKING!

Tiesto

i think a complete life time ban and a prison sentence is way to harsh...
Like everyone else i find it terrible and an absolute disgrace with the high numbers of people dieing on the road and the drink has a massive contribution towards this... i cant stand drink drivers but at the end of the day.... We all make mistakes... Yet im still pretty confident i would never drink drive..
i think a massive fine like 1000 euro and a long term ban is the best way. Id be pretty sure if i payed a 1000 quid fine i would think a lot more than twice before i would get into a car with drink on me again.

The OP

Tiesto wrote:

i think a complete life time ban and a prison sentence is way to harsh...We all make mistakes

Then don't do the crime. VERY simple concept. Standing in dogsh*t is a "mistake" - drink driving is purposfully putting OTHER people's lives in danger - a bit more serious than a "mistake" IMO. Screw that. It should be a 1 yr prison sentence and a lifetime ban.

JC 2K3

One way car parks in pubs after 9pm tbh

The OP

JC 2K3 wrote:

One way car parks in pubs after 9pm tbh

Do you know what "tbh" means? If you do, then your sentence is very poorly constructed.

Lifetime ban and a week in prison.

Guru Maith Agut

Yeah lets shoot the c$%ts!!

DonkeyStyle \o/

The OP wrote:

Do you know what "tbh" means? If you do, then your sentence is very poorly constructed.

tbh misuse ftw tbh

The OP

Guru Maith Agut wrote:

Yeah lets shoot the c$%ts!!

Agreed.

The OP

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

ftw

? F*ck the world?

kaimera

tbh, a prison sentence is stupid atm given the jail situations.

they'd be out soon enough anyway so ban the asses for life.

JC 2K3

The OP wrote:

Do you know what "tbh" means? If you do, then your sentence is very poorly constructed.

yeah, in conventional English, but on the internet putting "tbh" at the end of a statement means, "In my honest opinion I believe that there should be...."

anyway, back on topic

Turner

Most people get fined costs which is about 120 Euros and depending on the amount of alcohol in their system anything up to a 2 year ban (for a first offence)

I would like to see their car also getting destroyed, with the offender paying for the destruction / recycling.

Guru Maith Agut

JC 2K3 wrote:

yeah, in conventional English, but on the internet putting "tbh" at the end of a statement means, "In my honest opinion I believe that there should be...."

anyway, back on topic

Ahem!!!
http://www.sharpened.net/glossary/acronym.php?TBH

:rolleyes:

Kojak

jdwals wrote:

Second The OP's position on this one - you want to drive - then NO DRINKING!

I believe that is the rule in Sweden - absolutley no alcohol in the system before driving.

At the very least in this country longer bans should be given to first time offendors so as to eradicate the idea from their head.

Tiesto

The OP wrote:

Then don't do the crime. VERY simple concept. Standing in dogsh*t is a "mistake" - drink driving is purposfully putting OTHER people's lives in danger - a bit more serious than a "mistake" IMO. Screw that. It should be a 1 yr prison sentence and a lifetime ban.

purposfully? i guess you mean purposely.
No thats not the case at all. Yeah theres the minority who just dont give a s**t about their life or others but the majority of drink drivers dont go out on the road to purposely put other people's lives in danger! Alcohal impairs your judgement and to some more than others!
Losing your driving license for ever!!
1 year prison sentence, thats laughable...
Huge fines and long term bans. Thats the way.

JC 2K3

Guru Maith Agut wrote:

Ahem!!!
http://www.sharpened.net/glossary/acronym.php?TBH

:rolleyes:

I know what it stands for.

The OP

JC 2K3 wrote:

I know what it stands for.

Of course; and that's why you explained it wrong.

Binomate

I think if we were to invest in creating schools for offenders where they are shown the results of drink driving and statistics. If you can educate people they will not do it. I think offenders should be banned from the road untill they are educated about the effects of Drink driving.

IDMUD

For minor intoxication a 500€ fine and 3-6 month driving ban. For driving completely pissed 1000€ fine and a 12 month ban and required to re-take their license. For driving pissed and dangerous (speeding, weaving into oncoming traffic) steep fine and a jailtime.

Tiesto

yeah thats what im talking about IDMUD apart from the jail time part.

biko

Depends on if it is a first time offence and level of intoxication. For first time offender perhaps fine of 5% of annual salary. If the driver has a history of D&D then prison and ban for a long period.

LundiMardi

life time ban.

Turner

What about people who have no job, on the dole, were on drugs aswell, have no licence and insurance.

They get 100 euro fine or else 10 days in prison...

Most chose to do 10 days in prison.

Back out again only to do it again whenever they get outta their head.

Dizzyblabla

lifetime ban for driving drunk, 6months+ for driving after drinking heavily the night before, chances are you're still over the limit.

DonkeyStyle \o/

The OP wrote:

? F*ck the world?

Steady on :eek:
for the win

jimmycrackcorm

It's very easy to jump to the conclusion that a lifetime ban would be the ideal answer. But anyone who suggests it has only thought it through for about 3/4 of a second. consider these points....

* You are a foreign national - you drink and drive and get a lifetime ban - you just go home. The Garda reported in the papers yesterday that up to 20% of fatal accidents involve non-nationals.

* People take the whole lifetime ban seriously and don't drink and drive - accident statistics remain the same or rising. Surprisingly the people who have accidents where they were over the limit still have accidents - except there are no fingers to point now to drink being the cause.

* Increasing numbers of people turn to non-alcholic drugs. Because breathalyzers don't work in that scenario - accidents keep rising.

* The lifetime ban becomes a success and the posters on this thread start posting calls for hands to be cut off thieves, castration for rapists and fingers cut of Boards posters who use txtspeak...

and we all live happily ever after in a brave new world.

DoctorEdgeWild

I personally would be in favour of;

Over the limit - 3 year ban + fine

Twice the limit - 5 year ban + fine

Three times the limit - Lifetime ban + fine

All fines to be paid into a fund for the victims of drink driving.

Special traffic police to be set up OR proper investment and retraining of current Gardai (preferrable).


THE most important thing imo is checkpoints - for example I am 24, have been driving professionally since age 17 - I often drive unsociable hours yet have NEVER been breathalysed. As it happens I have never touched alcohol but I thinkI should have been checked at least a few times a year?

Good point about the drugs though jimmycrackcorm, surely there is some means of chemical testing in case it is suspected (short of taking them down the station for a date with a plastic cup that is).

The OP

The OP wrote:

Then don't do the crime. VERY simple concept. Standing in dogsh*t is a "mistake" - drink driving is purposfully putting OTHER people's lives in danger - a bit more serious than a "mistake" IMO. Screw that. It should be a 1 yr prison sentence and a lifetime ban.

That is rubbish. Infact is there any places in the world with such a harsh penalty?

The fact is more enforcement is needed, not more punishment.

ionapaul

€1000 is not a steep fine. A colleague of mine was fined $10,000 five years ago in the States for his first drinking driving offence, and was told that if he was caught again, he would be hit with a lifetime driving ban. That scared some sense into him.
5% of annual income is not enough, it should be a sufficiently punitive fine, 20% seems a lot fairer.
One of my immediate family members was killed by a drunk driver a long time ago when the penalties were practically non-existant so I am sure I am more critical than others here, but I think the penalties / sentences are nowhere near severe enough. Jim McDaid should've got a few months in prison and never be allowed to drive again.

The OP

ronoc wrote:

That is rubbish. Infact is there any places in the world with such a harsh penalty?

The fact is more enforcement is needed, not more punishment.

Be realistic. Why spend more money enforcing it? Let people take responsibility for their own actions, and if they get caught, then they pay the consequences. Enforcing it costs more money, but HUGE fines generate money.

mayotom

Have a sliding scale. more drink longer ban.
also take their car and sell it to fund a better education on the subject and helping the victims of drink driving

rubadub

Lifetime ban depending on how over the limit you are. Twice the limit would be lifetime ban, on the limit 1 year, going up a year for each 10% over the limit. Anything over twice would be prison.

Car taken off you and sold, this would be a fairer way of fining, since the rich wouldnt be phased by a 5000, fine, but if their fancy car was taken they would be well pissed off. Also makes a bit of sense since generally more expensive cars are bigger and faster and capable of more damage, like the way insurance & tax are blended into petrol prices in some countries so bigger cars are automatically taxed more and you pay as you go, so low mileage drivers benefit.
If the car was pretty worthless there should be a minimum value that they have to cough up.

The OP

The OP wrote:

Be realistic. Why spend more money enforcing it? Let people take responsibility for their own actions, and if they get caught, then they pay the consequences. Enforcing it costs more money, but HUGE fines generate money.

Because for the simple fact its not being enforced. If there was a realistic chance of being caught then people might think twice.

We always hear about the usual young male driver killed on sunday morning. Of all the times I have come home late from the pub or after the night club, in a taxi i might add, not once have I seen a garda check point.

I have seen however blind drunk people getting into their cars after the night clubs. I have even seen someone who was worse for wear rear end a taxi. The taxi let him away with it too:mad:

Have a look at the number of cars outside a pub at 10 on a saturday. How many of them are still there in the morning? Don't kid yourself that they are all designated dessies.

My mam and dad do it and ive caused murder with them over it as o lost two mates in an accident a few years ago
Fine & Long driving ban should do the trick

ivan087

a ban for life. thats the only way to do it. pubs should be targeted by blocking all roads available. more people have died on irish roads in the past 5 years then in all the irish troubles. about time it got more attention then the north. ban anyone caught drinking for life and a few months in jail. enough is enough.

Ickle Magoo

I think an automatic 40day jail sentance would do the trick....people just don't seem to care that they can kill others by being so stupid & irresponsible - but I bet the thought of 40 days in the clink, a criminal record & the possibility of loosing their jobs would make the eejits think twice! :rolleyes::mad:

MorningStar

Of the people who feel so strongly about increasing the ban have they ever done anything to make this happen or protest about the leanancy on others.

Did people ring RTE and ask the Eamonn Dunphy should not be used due to his crime.

Do people avoid newstalk as a result either?

Anybody tell the political parties of politicians caught drink driving that unless he was kicked they would never get your vote again.

Many people are compliced

jdwals

Did any one read the case in the Indo today that shows up how shambolic the sentences for drink driving are in this coutry?
Short version:
Guy goes out for a night drinking and brings his car. Guy does not end up driving home at first, a friend who did not drink does but they end up changing over two miles back from the car owners house.
Car owner/drink driver then proceeds to crash the car and kills his friend. Drunk driver thinks - oh sh!t, I'm in trouble now so calls some friends and moves the body of his friend from the passanger seat into the drivers seat and tells anyone who will listen that it was the friend who was driving and crashed the car.
The truth comes out in the end - it seems drunk drivers sister gave him up, fair play girl - it could not have been an easy decision but I think you did the right thing in a very difficult situiation.
Now, being guilty of drink driving, killing his friend by drink driving, tampering with evidence, perverting the course of justice what type of sentence would be an adequate sentence? Think about that and then compare it to what he actually got:


Eighteen months!

Pigman II

prison + lifetime ban

jor el

The penalties for drink driving in this country are a joke. First, second, third or any other offence makes no difference. My brother works for one of the county councils and he has a friend who also works there. This particular guy has been banned from driving three times, for drink driving. Each time, he got a two year ban, but appealed it and got his licence back early. Also, he's still on a provisional licence.

As has been said, it's not a mistake to drink and drive, it's a decision you make yourself. Taking drugs and driving is another thing, which won't show up in a breathalyser, but would in a blood test. If the Gardai think you're in any way intoxicated then they can arrest you and take you in. The trouble is, where are the Gardai at two O'Clock in the morning?

I drive across the country most weekends, late Friday night and late Sunday night. In six years, on a 120 mile journey, I've only ever seen a Garda checkpoint on the road once. That was a tax/insurance/seatbelt check in Clonmel at near midnight on a Sunday. I didn't let my window down and the Garda never spoke to me, I could have been hammered and would have gotten away with it even then.

Enforcement is as big a problem as the penalties. Anyway, I vote lifetime ban for drink driving. There's no excuse for it.

The Song Thrush

I think a fine of at least €150 and a one-year driving ban would suit, and should the same person get caught drink-driving again, then give them a permanent ban from driving.