Do you drink and drive?

JustCoz

I find it really disturbing the amount of people who are dying on the roads every weekend.
I thought that the young generation of new drivers was getting better when it comes to drinking and driving but was talking to some people recently about it and apparently alot of people I know do it.
Do you?

Faith

This thread has been done to death. Have a quick look and you'll find your answers.

Trinity

No. I have a son to come home to. If i want to drink i leave the car behind. if i want to drive i dont drink.

Its a simple choice really. I think you know before you go out and make the conscious decision if i take the car i CANNOT have a drink.

In saying that i know a lot of people who have one or two and drive.

I just couldnt live with myself if i hurt anyone or worse killed them or myself and leave my son an orphan - all for the sake of 15 quid in a cab.

steveland?

Young drivers are a lot less likely to drink and drive than older drivers. Young drivers just speed more...

I'd lose all respect for anyone I found out drank and drove... it's one of the most ignorant irresponsible things anyone can do

Gautama

What's the fastest way to find if something as been "done to death"? The seach facility is ****e on this site.

Red Hand

Unfortunately, I have in the past. Never above six though.

KTRIC

I do most weekends, but my cut off is about 4 or 5 pints. Anything after that and I get a bit wobly on the bike.

Mossy Monk

most i ever had was 1 pint before jumping into my car

me and the biz

Never have and never will.

galwayrush

20 years driving, never have, never will.(and I do enjoy a few pints and good red wine.)
and I have no respect for anyone who does or symphaty for anyone caught.

Binomate

I wont get behind the wheel of the car after any more than 4 and a half pints.

CiaranC

I take it you all mean you never drink and drive while over the legal limit? Does this mean you dont drive the day after having a skinful too?

Binomate

CiaranC wrote:

I take it you all mean you never drink and drive while over the legal limit? Does this mean you dont drive the day after having a skinful too?

No, like I said. I don't get behind the wheel if I've had over 4 and a half pints. Just to be on the safe side. I only speed if I've had less than three.

Dave!

It's good to see how successful the ads are at changing public opinion

I don't drive yet but I won't be drinking and driving.

Font22

if you drive you shouldnt drink ANYTHING with alcohol in it. its that simple. anyone who does shouldnt be allowed to drive in my opinion. its stupid people that drive having had a drink that are killing people on the roads every weekend.

Font22

and i dont care how much you have had to drink. one pint is too many.

KTRIC

Ah, you sound all just chill out a bit and have a pint

Font22

i see someone finds people dying on the road needlessly funny

Shellie13

Wouldnt even have one...then again id b drunk on a barmans fart!

Funny enough all the bad prress young people get yet i know none of my friends would do it yet mosta my parents friedns will drink after one or two!

Kojak

I never drink and drive - don't intend to either.

Faith

Binomate wrote:

No, like I said. I don't get behind the wheel if I've had over 4 and a half pints. Just to be on the safe side. I only speed if I've had less than three.

I really hope that you're very tall and very heavy. I wouldn't be able to see straight after 4 and a half pints, never mind get in the driver's seat!

county

Faith wrote:

This thread has been done to death. Have a quick look and you'll find your answers.

yes done to death
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=280109&referrerid=&highlight=drink%20and%20drive?

Binomate

Faith wrote:

I really hope that you're very tall and very heavy. I wouldn't be able to see straight after 4 and a half pints, never mind get in the driver's seat!

I sure as hell am.

http://hunch.se/stuff/hard-core-heavy-metal-midget.jpg

That's me on the right.

Rb

Font22 wrote:

if you drive you shouldnt drink ANYTHING with alcohol in it. its that simple. anyone who does shouldnt be allowed to drive in my opinion. its stupid people that drive having had a drink that are killing people on the roads every weekend.

I agree completely.

Gautama wrote:

What's the fastest way to find if something as been "done to death"? The seach facility is ****e on this site.

Yes, yes it is! Now go voice your concerns about it on the feedback forum:)

I'm not insured so amn't driving at the moment, but when I was I never drank and drove. Never have and never will. People who think its fine to have a few and get behind the wheel absolutely disgust me.

Car Mad

what gets me is people going out drinking on a friday night at 9 get completly ratted go home maybe half one or 2 and then go off to work at 8 and think there ok.thats just as dangerous.i make out that causes a lot of accidents in the morning times.tiredness as well has a big role to play.

seamus

Anyone who drinks and drives knows what they're doing is obviously wrong, but they will use any excuse to justify it. Much like those who smoke or drink while pregnant, drive in bus lanes, etc.

The fact of the matter is that there will always be a subset who will drink and drive. The only way to reduce this subset is to have someone close to them die (not the ideal way) or to make them think that if they do it once, they're likely to be caught. Random breath tests are great for this.

I would argue that really young drivers (18-22) and older drivers (> 45) are more likely to drink-drive than others. Younger drivers because they're still in their "I'm indestructible" phase, and overestimate their control while drunk, and older drivers because it's a tradition.

I would hazard a guess that our increase in binge drinking will serve to lower incidence of drink driving; For a lot of people now, "going out for a few" actually means "Won't be home till 5am, well oiled". With this in mind, they're going to take a bus or taxi. If someone actually thinks they're heading out for three or four pints, then they're more likely to take their vehicle on the promise of, "If I end up having too much I can leave the car there". But the presence of a vehicle and reduced inhibitions are bad bedfellows.

veXual

I don't see how anyone can justify driving a car after consuming any drink what so-ever. Very stupid thing to do.

If you drink and drive you should be shot with a ball of your own s**t imo.

dlofnep

Never. I've had a pint after judo and drove home once or twice. But that's it.. And even at that, I wouldn't make a habit of drinking, even after one pint.

Savman

So far 78% have said No. Which begs the question...

WTF IS WRONG WITH THE 22%? :mad::mad::mad:

What will it take to make these people understand? If any of the 22% are reading this, at least have the courage to explain yizzer selves.

up for anything

Shellie13 wrote:

Funny enough all the bad prress young people get yet i know none of my friends would do it yet mosta my parents friedns will drink after one or two!

This is legal.

Mossy Monk

Shellie13 wrote:

Funny enough all the bad prress young people get yet i know none of my friends would do it yet mosta my parents friedns will drink after one or two!

you do realise that you can drink a certain amount (varies person to person) before driving

wow sierra

People 30+ are far more likely to drink moderatly and drive while most younger people completely frown on it. Yet it is almost solely younger people who are killed on our roads at night time.

Even if all the people who currently drink and drive with 3 or 4 pints stopped immediatly (mainly people over 30/40 age group) it would have almost no effect on road deaths. Thems the statistics - I'll leave the moralising and the boy racing/playing chicken etc to the youth.

ArphaRima

Even one drink affects your driving. Thats a fact.

Personally I drink 1 pint, or 2 330 ml bottles of beer maximum, then usually a pint or two of coke, and a meal before driving (same pub, same sitting, over 2 hours). The average human body metabolises a unit an hour of alcohol. A beer is 2 units, and the limit is 2. (AFAIK). So after 2 hours, my blood alcohol should be back at neutral.

I think that most experienced drivers can drive with more, reasonably. But for me at least, its the prospect of losing my licence that stops me from having more than the legal limit. You can have 8 pints and still be as good a driver as the L-plate with no pints, but that isnt the point - you are breaking the law.

This sh*t about people 30+ being immune to accidents is just that. I had an argument with the NRA spokesman a while ago about it. Their insistence that young male drivers cause all the accidents is distracting people from the fact that others crash too. The fatal figures dont reflect it because the 40 yr old is in his 20-airbag tanker volvo(maybe with the wife), while the 19 yr old skobe is in his pimped tin can corsa(and usually has 4 mates with him). And most accidents at night involve single car accidents.

xzanti

There was an interesting article in yesterday's News of the World, well more of an experiment really, about 15 people drank and then used the new personal breathalyzer device and some of the men were able to drink up to 3 pints before they were over the legal limit...

I personally wouldn't drink and drive.. I think my nerves would get the better of me even if I wasn't over the limit, would be just my luck for something to go horribly wrong tbh...

Jimoslimos

Nope never have. From experience in Ireland young people have a much better attitude to drink-driving than where I'm living in England. Over here its not uncommon to see some scumbag in a 10 yr old Ford escort with a can of Stella/Tenants export in one hand.

The Sweeper

I've never met a driver in my entire life who, when pressed on it, has never, ever driven after taking an alcoholic drink.

Be it:

Driving the morning after a heavy session and five hour's sleep.
Having one glass of something and then driving.
Have three glasses of something over four hours with a large meal, and then driving.
Sticking to one drink an hour for three hours, then driving.
Sinking two pints in your lunch hour between 1pm and 2pm and then driving home at 5pm.

That's not because I know a big bunch of scumbags. It's because I don't know any teetotallers, and all of the above are ways that people manipulate their own limits.

Unless the law totally bans drinking and driving, so that you can be prosecuted if it can be proven that you had an alcoholic drink up to three hours before driving your car even if you're not over the limit when you're stopped, people will always, always drink and drive.

How "the legal limit" affects you is dependent on a huge number of factors - height, weight, body mass index, sex, fitness and whether you've eaten or not.

So a friend last year, in the run up to Christmas, between 7pm and 10pm, had two bottles of lager and a large glass of red wine with a meal. He's 6ft and about 185lbs. He left the restaurant with a colleague who was rather the worse for wear. My friend got in his car, to drive the colleague home. The colleague paused to have a wee against a wall before getting in the car, and attracted the attention of the police. The colleague was so drunk that the police decided to breathalise my friend before allowing him to drive. It was 10pm and he was still well under the 'legal limit'.

If he hadn't eaten, had a cold or was tired, it could've been a different story.

kevmy

Just because the Government haven't got serious and banned all drinking and driving doesn't make it okay to drink and drive and be under the limit. The breathalysers the Gardai use are only a guideline and can't measure the acurately if your close the measure you again maybe bring you to the station anyway.

If the Government got serious and banned all drinking and driving it would reduce it some more. Every little bit helps. They don't have the balls cos they're afraid some ignorant older people in rural areas won't vote for them (and they only care about older people as younger ones don't vote in the main). This is bullsh1t that we get from the idiots like that councillor down in Tipp. My friends and I are from the country we regularly drive to Galway (40 kms away) or to the local town for a night out. However the guy who drives doesn't drink either that or we stay the night in Galway and leave the next day around 1 or so after breakfast and maybe dinner. We are all between 21-24 yrs old none of us would ever think of drinking and driving.

My father used to drink and drink up until about 6 yrs ago everyone did around his age living in the country. Now they will get caught they don't. The statistics show that we are reducing road deaths. The overall figures show a smallish numerical drop but you have to take into account the extra number of cars on the road.

Don't say older people don't crash cars. While youger people speed more, take more chances and haven't as much experience older people also crash. If every peson under 25 was taken of the road car accidents would go down significantly (40% maybe) but they wouldn't stop. Most accidents that get media attention involve three young people being killed but on the same day five older drivers crash severly injuring themselves and others. They are involved in crashes every day of the week due to speeding, falling asleep at the wheel and from drink driving.

Tar.Aldarion

I would never touch drink and drive, and I'm glad my friends who are driving don't drink at all on a night out.

fits

wow sierra wrote:

People 30+ are far more likely to drink moderatly and drive while most younger people completely frown on it. Yet it is almost solely younger people who are killed on our roads at night time.

Even if all the people who currently drink and drive with 3 or 4 pints stopped immediatly (mainly people over 30/40 age group) it would have almost no effect on road deaths. Thems the statistics - I'll leave the moralising and the boy racing/playing chicken etc to the youth.

I have driven with a few pints on me in the past. I actually dont see anything wrong with having a couple of pints and driving the mile or two home at 30 miles an hour. This would make me akin to a murderer in most of the posters' eyes. I think this is a very simplistic attitude. I do agree that enforcing the limit is the only way to go about things and as such I agree with it if it will only stop young lads doing their quarter miles after having 10 pints.. Its not the 40/50 year olds slowly driving the couple of miles home that are inflating our road death figures...

So much self righteous moralising going on here.

CiaranC

Drink driving is the new child molesting

Sam Vimes

Binomate wrote:

I wont get behind the wheel of the car after any more than 4 and a half pints.

you are joking right? please tell me your joking. you'd deserve every year of the sentence you'd get for that.

fits wrote:

I have driven with a few pints on me in the past. I actually dont see anything wrong with having a couple of pints and driving the mile or two home at 30 miles an hour. This would make me akin to a murderer in most of the posters' eyes.

here's whats wrong with it: your several orders of magnitude more likely to kill yourself or someone else in that situation. and yes, you would be a murderer. the speed you're driving when you're drunk is irrelevant. you're drunk and as such incapable of driving a car. and if you only live a mile from the pub, why don't you just walk?

fits

Commander Vimes wrote:

here's whats wrong with it: your several orders of magnitude more likely to kill yourself or someone else in that situation. and yes, you would be a murderer. the speed you're driving when you're drunk is irrelevant. you're drunk and as such incapable of driving a car. and if you only live a mile from the pub, why don't you just walk?

Oh god! We love hysteria don't we...

I dont drink and drive any more, and I have only done it a handful of times. I dont think people should drive when they're ratarsed, I dont think people should drive long distances after having a few pints, and I dont think someone who has had 3 pints should drive anywhere near the speed limit on country roads...

but...

you cant legislate for those things, and we have to be nannied to behave sensibly therefore, I support the drink driving laws and the enforcement of them... and the further isolation of people in rural areas because they will save lives..

I'm just trying to point out the greyish bit in between black and white.

Budd

Drink driving is the new child molesting

You've hit the nail on the head.

THe ****ing hysteria about drink driving these days is unreal. Its hardly the biggest offence in the world. Most people I know have done it from young to old. Just the loudest voices always get heard in these debates. The screaming anti drink drivers sicken me.

kevmy

Gaybo had a piece in the paper yesterday (I think it was the Trib) saying how quickly people's attitude changed when the smoking ban came in. It's now completely taboo for someone to light a cigarette inside most buildings. He said he wished it was as taboo for somebody to drink and drive. Now I wouldn't usually be a big fan of Gay Byrne but he's hit the nail on the head. Nobody is stopping anybody drinking and nobody is stopping anybody driving but if everybody stopped people from doing both together it would be great.

This rural pub slow driving stuff is stupid. We were coming home one night late after a session and my friend was driving (it was his turn) and we met a guy in front of us doing ~30 mph weaving back and over the road. He was absolutely deadly my friend went to overtake and he swung towards us, didn't even see us coming. We stayed well behind him the rest of the way home. Everytime a car came in the opposite direction he swung towards the verge, sometimes clipping it. He was a real danger. He was ~50 yrs old. He probably only headed out for one or two drinks and he didn't have that far to go but I'll tell you this I hope I never come across him again at 1.30 in the morning.

kevmy

Budd wrote:

THe ****ing hysteria about drink driving these days is unreal. Its hardly the biggest offence in the world. Most people I know have done it from young to old. Just the loudest voices always get heard in these debates. The screaming anti drink drivers sicken me.

See who's screaming when one of your friends is dead or paralysed or they've killed somebody else. I don't stab someone cos it's not the biggest offence in the world. Grow up.
It's just not worth the risk. If you don't drink and drive your less likely to have an accident simple as that. The roads are always dangerous. In most country pubs there are always few people who don't drink but go for the social outlet. Arrange to get a lift with them, get your brother or mother or son or wife or husband to pick you up. It might be a bit of bother but much less bother than finding out your dead in the morning

Budd

See who's screaming when one of your friends is dead or paralysed or they've killed somebody else

WOuld you like to show me a picture of it. Just like some pro life zealot? Wave it in my face and scream at me 'scumbag!!'

I remember one of my friends told a story about him drink driving. He said he was freaked out because he woke up at his house in Waterford with his car outside. The last thing he'd remmbered was being out in Dublin the night before.

Everybody thought it was a funny story. Nobody said anything like they do here. Why? Because with my peers a bit of drink driving is acceptable enough just like taking drugs. Illegal but nobody is going to berate you for it.

Sam Vimes

fits wrote:

Oh god! We love hysteria don't we...
.
.
.

you cant legislate for those things, and we have to be nannied to behave sensibly therefore, I support the drink driving laws and the enforcement of them... and the further isolation of people in rural areas because they will save lives..

people in rural areas should get a designated driver or rent a mini bus. the options aren't drink and drive or never leave the house. it works for the vortex where just about everyone gets home on the minibuses for €6.


i know this is for america but it still proves the point:
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/hea_alc_rel_tra_fat_as_a_per-alcohol-related-traffic-fatalities-percentage
i don't think i'm being hysterical tbh. i doubt all those people had 10 pints before driving. every drop of alcohol affects driving ability so people shouldn't drink at all if they intend to drive. its not that difficult to find alternative transport

fits

kevmy you're missing the point... *obviously* that old lad you encountered had had too much and shouldnt have been driving. People should know their own limits, however this is unrealistic which is why the laws are in place. I'm sure some people reading this know someone who has been in an accident involving drink driving and naturally it is a sensitive issue. I'm just trying to look at it logically... drink driving is now stigmatised whereas driving while tired/ after having a few joints/ on prescription drugs isnt...
There a whole lot of hysteria and not much sense being spoken on the whole issue of road accidents and deaths.

Blisterman

Well, the difference between drunk driving and drugs, is with drugs, it's only the person who takes the drugs, that's at risk.

Sam Vimes

fits wrote:

drink driving is now stigmatised whereas driving while tired/ after having a few joints/ on prescription drugs isnt...
There a whole lot of hysteria and not much sense being spoken on the whole issue of road accidents and deaths.

em... they are stigmatised. there's massive campaigns telling people to pull over and sleep for a while if they're tired. and most times that i hear drink driving mentioned, someone mentions driving on drugs too. its just that drink driving is by far the most common and as you can see in my link for example, causes 50% of road accidents in rhode island and so it gets the most coverage

fits

Commander Vimes wrote:

people in rural areas should get a designated driver or rent a mini bus. the options aren't drink and drive or never leave the house. it works for the vortex where just about everyone gets home on the minibuses for €6.

Thats a great idea in theory, not so easy in practice. I live in a rural area with a very low population density. I just moved there two years ago. There is no system like you describe in place and I cant imagine there ever being one. I dont live alone so if one of us is hanging for a pint the other can drive. The area also a very low accident rate, the roads are ****, and lots of people drink and drive.

I was on holidays a few weeks ago and my cousin now walks home from the pub on a very bad main road after having a few drinks. He wears a high viz jacket and carries a torch, but I'm still not convinced that its a better option than him driving home.