Mate Caught Drunk Behind the Wheel...

OldmanMondeo

What the guy did was stupid. If he is lucky the Judge will see it as a stupid prank and the fact that (thankfully) no one was hurt, he might only get a fine, but he could receive a driving ban.
As a non-driver he probably wouldn't be aware of the checks drivers carry out as second nature, checking hand brake, ensuring the car was not in gear etc.
What the guy done was a stupid prank, not to dis similar to ones carried out by many drunken lads every weekend in every country. He was lucky not to hurt himself or anyone else and unlucky to get caught. Would he have done this had he been sober, probably not. This guy will not be proud of getting arressted and a possible driving ban, but then I am sure there are people here that have done things that they now regret and / or not proud off.

Fey!

Stark - yes. I was 16, and I hadn't driven before, so how the hell would I have known?

edit: be nice!

Hotblack Desiato

Fey! wrote:

Stark - yes. I was 16, and I hadn't driven before, so how the hell would I have known?

As a kid I was fascinated by driving and knew what the controls were years before I ever got the chance to try. I'm hardly alone in this.

May I suggest that you refrain from being such an obnoxious arse in future posts?

Reported for abuse.

Stark

Darragh29 wrote:

Whats your point? Do you think a drunken person who can't drive a car but is sitting in the drivers seat revving it up to such a degree that he brings the attention of a Garda down on himself is no risk to anyone??? Honestly, it never fails to amaze me how some people can post here trying to defend the indefensible.

I'm not defending anyone. I'm just disagreeing with the statement that a non-driver couldn't know what a gearstick does.

yayamark

Stark wrote:

I knew how to tell what gear a car was in when I was a child. It's not that hard to figure out even for someone who's never learnt to drive.

ok
some people who can't drive might know how the gear stick works
and
some people who can't drive mightn't know how the gear stick works

would u agree with that?

Victor

Tauren wrote:

but is being parked? (Not parkING)

AFAIK yes.

If i was in the car with my dad and one of my little brothers, then my dad went into a garage to get a drink or something, leaving the key in the ignition and the radio on - as he is doing this, my little bro, we'll say he is 5, hops into the front seat and pretends to be steering the car. Should my little brother be brought to court for driving without a licence? Technically, he is in charge of the car, as the person was in the OP.

Its a fairly irresponsible thing to do and I don't know what the law says on the matter.

Aside, the age of criminal responsibility is 7 and I think being raised to 10-14.

Commander Vimes wrote:

you say he deserves to be prosecuted because "he shouldnt be drinking that much that he doesnt know whats going on around him". are you saying that people who drink a lot should be prosecuted?

Yes. It is illegal to be drunk in public, although its usually only a problem if you draw attention to yourself and / or are a danger to yourself or others.

Stark wrote:

I knew how to tell what gear a car was in when I was a child. It's not that hard to figure out even for someone who's never learnt to drive.

Which puts paid tot he idea he didn't know how to drive and wouldn't have tried to drive off, even for a short distance.

Duckjob

maoleary wrote:

Sitting in the drivers seat, car engine on, revving the engine. I think he had every intent to drive. He was hardly going to sit there and rev for fun. He probably was too p**sed to set off more quickly.

Thank God these people are being caught.

You're one of those pre-cogs from Minority Report are you?

As usual on these threads, any sense of perspective goes out the window in favour of high-horse waffle.

What the guy did was silly, for sure, but there's no evidence he ever had any intention to drive. As a non-driver, he may even not even have been aware that he could get done without the car moving.

Hopefully he gets off with a slap on the wrist and a caution. I would lay more blame on the driver who should have known better than to hand over his keys.

The 'burn-him!!!!' angry-lynch-mob posts on here really get tiresome....

Skippy27

That'll teach him, too many people being killed on the roads for one reason or another, hard way to learn!

Mitch Connor

Victor wrote:

AFAIK yes.

Its a fairly irresponsible thing to do and I don't know what the law says on the matter.

Aside, the age of criminal responsibility is 7 and I think being raised to 10-14.
Yes. It is illegal to be drunk in public, although its usually only a problem if you draw attention to yourself and / or are a danger to yourself or others.

Which puts paid tot he idea he didn't know how to drive and wouldn't have tried to drive off, even for a short distance.

so the fact SOMEONE ELSE knew what a gear stick was for put paid to the idea he didn't know how to drive.... rrrrrrrrrright.

besides, even if you know what the gear stick is for, it doesn't mean you know how to drive. My first driving lesson wasn't: "Thats the gear stick, it changes gears.... €35 please and good luck in the test"

Even if you take it as fact he knew what the gear stick was for, the fact the car wasn't in gear would put paid to the idea that he was about to drive off. OH NO...He reved the engine, BBBBBBBBBBBBBUUUUUUUUUUURRRRN him.

Mitch Connor

Skippy27 wrote:

That'll teach him, too many people being killed on the roads for one reason or another, hard way to learn!

Yeah, and all those people getting killed by parked cars being reved..... thank god we are starting to clamp down on them, and not the hundreds of people that are, potentially, actually drink driving. Such as the high number of people that leave the bray beach area when the clubs shut and drive home, without meeting a single checkpoint, despite traveling main roads, and passing about 10 pubs on the way.

Victor_M

Tauren wrote:

Yeah, and all those people getting killed by parked cars being reved..... thank god we are starting to clamp down on them, and not the hundreds of people that are, potentially, actually drink driving.

Exactly, Mountains out of molehills here, he was stupid, but come on, we've all done stupid things in the past, if there was even the remotest chance he was planning on driving that would be a differnet story obviously, the high horser's on boards really pi$$ me off.

Judge will probably slap him on the wrist as a lesson to prevent him doing something similar again.

Henry Ford III

Victor_M wrote:

Exactly, Mountains out of molehills here, he was stupid, but come on, we've all done stupid things in the past, if there was even the remotest chance he was planning on driving that would be a differnet story obviously, the high horser's on boards really pi$$ me off.

Judge will probably slap him on the wrist as a lesson to prevent him doing something similar again.

In the eyes of the law he is culpable, and was in charge of the car.

He will suffer a penalty without any doubt.

Fey!

ninja900 wrote:

As a kid I was fascinated by driving and knew what the controls were years before I ever got the chance to try. I'm hardly alone in this.

...so what? Not everyone is as gifted as you obviously were. As someone else has mentioned, your first driving lesson doesn't go along the lines of "there's the gearstick, you already know what to do with it, off you go". I would have known what the indicators, lights and other controls were, but not gears and how they worked.

ninja900 wrote:

Reported for abuse.

Sorry for upsetting delicate sensibilities.

OT - KBannon; sorry for causing you grief.

Wossack

Fey! wrote:

...so what? Not everyone is as gifted as you obviously were. As someone else has mentioned, your first driving lesson doesn't go along the lines of "there's the gearstick, you already know what to do with it, off you go". I would have known what the indicators, lights and other controls were, but not gears and how they worked.
...

Aye, and are people forgetting about the part about the guy being drunk? I knew about the physical properties of glass, and the operation of doors at age 16 - but Ive still walked into a sliding glass door when drunk before. The whole arguement is a bit pointless due to the involvement of alcohol into the situation.

SGKM

Basically where it has ended up, if anyone is interested is that when the blood sample comes back from being tested if he is over the legal blood alcohol level for driving, which it is gauranteed to, he'll have a court appearance if the prosecuting gaurd issues the summons. He said that gaurds treated him very well over the whole ordeal and towards the end the gaurds realised that he was genuinely messing and had no intention to drive the car. Thanks for all the helpful replies.

endplate

That's great hopefully the Garda will say that to the Judge and he'll get nothing more that a fine it's all he deserves for a prank gone wrong. I'll bet he won't do it again lesson learnt and all that

Marcus.Aurelius

At any rate he was caught drunk while in control of a mechanically propelled vehicle and caught rotten. Get over it.

EDIT: Whether or not he had the intent is irrelevant. He had the engine started and was revving if I recall the OP's comments. Get over yourselves, nutcase lefties!

Stark

Must. kill. green smiley.

Victor

Tauren wrote:

so the fact SOMEONE ELSE knew what a gear stick was for put paid to the idea he didn't know how to drive.... rrrrrrrrrright.

There is a difference between "knowing how to drive" and "knowing who to drive properly".

Are you suggesting that if you got the average 20 year old male non-driver pisshead, that they wouldn't know how to put a car in gear, or even attempt to put it in gear?

Likewise, are you suggesting the 20 year old male pisshead virgin, wouldn't know where to put his willy?

Fey!

Victor wrote:

Likewise, are you suggesting the 20 year old male pisshead virgin, wouldn't know where to put his willy?

A friend of mine slept with a non-virgin 24 year old at the weekend, and reckoned that he didn't know where to put his willy despite having experience!

So, how does that fit your arguement? :rolleyes:

TJJP

Victor wrote:

There is a difference between "knowing how to drive" and "knowing who to drive properly".

There certainly is, whatever it is.

Seth Brundle

Fey! wrote:

A friend of mine slept with a non-virgin 24 year old at the weekend, and reckoned that he didn't know where to put his willy despite having experience!

yeah - right - your friend - it was you Fey! wasn't it?

Stark

Fey! wrote:

A friend of mine slept with a non-virgin 24 year old at the weekend, and reckoned that he didn't know where to put his willy despite having experience!

So, how does that fit your arguement? :rolleyes:

Well your friend should have told him if she wanted it up the ass.

drdre

SGKM wrote:

Basically I was out in town tonight with the lads and 1 of the lads was working late so he decided to drive in. When the clubs closed we all left and another one of the lads who was hammered drunk went out into the car and started the engine. He was revving the engine and a garda happened to be cycling by and arrested him. He had a urine or blood sample taken ( I wasnt around to see which it was) in the garda station and if it comes back positive he'll have acourt appearence!!

Does anyone know what the proceedure is for this situation. Hes 20 and has no driving licience (not even a provisional), no insurance and he cant even drive ( but obviously the gaurds dont know this when they arrested him) and he was quite drunk. Does anyone know what'll happen in this situation? Or has anyone been in a similar situation before?

Thanks.

So at the end what happened to your friend ?

patrickc

drdre wrote:

So at the end what happened to your friend ?

yeh what did happen?

drdre

patrickc2006 wrote:

yeh what did happen?

Thats what im asking

SGKM

I posted a couple of weeks ago to say where it ended up, but I'll let you know again. He had to give a blood sample that night and when the results come back he'll have to go to court if he is over the blood alcohol level for driving. He is gauranteed to be as it was a heavy night drinking with the lads and he probably had 9 or 10 pints between 8:00pm and 2:30am. The guards realised that it was a genuine mistake towards the end and that he had no intention to drive. I think that its up to the guard who arrested him to decide whether to issue the summons for a court appearance or not so he may get away without going to court.

Hotblack Desiato

It would be wrong if it didn't go to court. He was clearly drunk in charge of a vehicle, whatever about his intent to drive it or not (and proving that he had no intent is impossible) that is dangerous in itself.

drdre

SGKM wrote:

I posted a couple of weeks ago to say where it ended up, but I'll let you know again. He had to give a blood sample that night and when the results come back he'll have to go to court if he is over the blood alcohol level for driving. He is gauranteed to be as it was a heavy night drinking with the lads and he probably had 9 or 10 pints between 8:00pm and 2:30am. The guards realised that it was a genuine mistake towards the end and that he had no intention to drive. I think that its up to the guard who arrested him to decide whether to issue the summons for a court appearance or not so he may get away without going to court.

Thanks for the update

Santa Claus

Even if he had no intention of driving the car, he could have opened the door on this busy street and knocked a cyclist/motorcyclist off their bike because he was so drunk and unaware of what was going on.

Can someone have an endorsement placed on their file if they have never had a licence....If yes then he will most likely get an endorsement which will means he'll be screwed when he wants to get insurance etc !