i got bagged the next day!!

flanum

well last monday i had booked a half day off work (the first half) so i wouldnt be driving in the morning under the influence.
the last can i had was about 12:30 sun night, went to bed.
woke up about 11:30 mon morning, felt great, no hangover..grand.
had cup of coffee, skipped breakfast cos i was thinking id go into work 15 minutes earlier and have a lunch there!
so i was headin out the road towards work, feeling absolutely fine, in normal heading to work mode, saw checkpoint up ahead (saw it from about half mile away on big long stretch), had nothing to worry about as i knew i had a great long nights sleep and felt absolutely fine. if i had anything to have been worried about i could have easily done a "u-ey" and taken a turn off but i didnt as i thought i had nothing to worry about.
so i joined the queue of cars and there was a few pulled in both sides of the road (poor feckers i thought).
i wound down the window and gard asked me where i was going... i pointed to the factory where i was going (i was that close to work), he then said we are doing a spot check here sir and id like you to blow into this anyliser..etc.
i blew in thinking i was fine and i wasnt... fail showed up.
i was then arrested (at 12 noon on a monday), and brought in to blow into the yoke at the station.
it came out at 55. the limit apparently is 35.
im ****ed.
i went out of my way to do the right thing, i actually had half day off so i wouldnt be driving in case i was over th limit (after a feckin ten hour sleep or so)...

if i had got up early and headed in to work in the morning (obviously prob still half dopey/hungover) i would have gotten away with it as they never check at that time of morning.

im shafted... just bought a house in the middle of nowhere.... nobody within 20 miles works on my shift.

i also have to be on call once a month for a week 24/7.

all because i tried to do the right thing.

Yakult

sucks to be you. I would have thought you would be fine, but how much did you have to drink before that last can?

longshanks

what was it, a can of varnish?

AlmightyCushion

I think it takes 1 hour to break down a unit of alcohol. A can as 2 units so if you had more than 5 cans your body won't be able to break it all down in time.* Bit of a bitch but what can you do.


*This is all based on an episode of brainiac I seen ages ago so it's probably wrong.

flanum

i geuss i was carrying it over from the weekend, i was at the leitrim fleadh, lots of pints drank all day/evening saturday.
i even left the fleadh sun afternoon instead of staying on when the craic was flying, i could have rang in to work there and then and said i wouldnt be in at all monday and they would have been fine bout it, but oh no, mr conscientous here had to go home to do the right thing.
i got home sun afternoon and had big feed then had 5 cans heineken stretched from bout 6 oclock pm till bout half twelve, when i went to bed.

curse those hidden unburnt alcohol moleculey things swimming about the body from days previous!

yed be better off driving when yer steamed drunk at 7:30 on the morning!

Irish Halo

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

I think it takes 1 hour to break down a unit of alcohol. A can as 2 units so if you had more than 5 cans your body won't be able to break it all down in time.* Bit of a bitch but what can you do.


*This is all based on an episode of brainiac I seen ages ago so it's probably wrong.

That is vaguely how it works, 1 unit per hour but of course depends on each individuals body etc etc also now that lagers are getting stronger a 500ml can of 5% lager is actually 2.5 Units (a unit is a litre of 1% alcohol approx)

To the OP - that is fecked up as you say you thought you were doing the right thing

orestes

Sorry op, but you fukced up.

You were over the limit while behind the wheel of a car, I don't see how anyone else or the system can be blamed. Ok, you claim you were trying to do the right thing, but I gotta admit I'm having trouble having any sympathy for you.

cuckoo

flanum wrote: »

yed be better off driving when yer steamed drunk at 7:30 on the morning!

As that's really safe, and is also the 'right thing' to do.

flanum

some places in ireland believe it or not, dont have taxi services/buses/luases 24/7.
if it was an option here, id gladly leave my car at home on a monday and hop on the 64e or the metro/subway from ballyhaise to cavan town... but..its just not an option, maybe everybody in rural ireland should just give up alcohol and retreat into their homes, not call round to each others houses anymore for fear of being offered a glass of something.

dont mind me im just a bit annoyed cos my life is screwed for trying to follow the law.

Random

As part of the drink driving campaign we should all be provided with breathalisers so we can make sure we're ok to drive in the morning.

Guy:Incognito

random wrote: »

As part of the drink driving campaign we should all be provided with breathalisers so we can make sure we're ok to drive in the morning.

? No chance.

We should all just be more carefull. Even working on the rough 1 unit per hour system and add 2 hours should be enough.

flanum wrote: »

some places in ireland believe it or not, dont have taxi services/buses/luases 24/7.
if it was an option here, id gladly leave my car at home on a monday and hop on the 64e or the metro/subway from ballyhaise to cavan town... but..its just not an option, maybe everybody in rural ireland should just give up alcohol and retreat into their homes, not call round to each others houses anymore for fear of being offered a glass of something.

dont mind me im just a bit annoyed cos my life is screwed for trying to follow the law.

OR they could just not drink if they have to drive. Or is that too radical a way of thinking?

board om

Hey OP,

that is completley messed up. it really makes it hard to justify doing the right thing when something like that happens. its hard to know what to say to soemthing like that. when you think of all the prciks out there who would have kepty drinking and then just driven home afterwards without considering the safety of other people on the road.

hopefully it doesnt turn out too badly for you.

all the best

flanum

Stekelly wrote: »

?
OR they could just not drink if they have to drive. Or is that too radical a way of thinking?

LOOK do you not get it? i took a half day off work so that i would be okay to drive, i felt ok, i felt confident enough to blow into the feckin bag instead of takin a turn off when i saw them... i hadnt drank for twelve hours or so. i felt fine... i see you live in tallaght where there are buses luases and taxis! good for you and your high horse!

orestes

flanum wrote: »

some places in ireland believe it or not, dont have taxi services/buses/luases 24/7.
if it was an option here, id gladly leave my car at home on a monday and hop on the 64e or the metro/subway from ballyhaise to cavan town... but..its just not an option, maybe everybody in rural ireland should just give up alcohol and retreat into their homes, not call round to each others houses anymore for fear of being offered a glass of something.

dont mind me im just a bit annoyed cos my life is screwed for trying to follow the law.

My mother and step-dad live in Ballyjamesduff in Cavan, and they like a drink but they don't go heavy on the sauce if they have to drive to work the next day. The small town thing isn't an excuse man.

My brother who lives in Dublin is a courier. He starts work at 5 in the morning and he likes a beer or two on nights during the week, like if he's watching a match or something, but knows when to stop because he has to drive in the morning, he knows he has to keep track of his alcohol levels for the next day.

Maybe you were trying to follow the law, but that doesn't change the fact that you fukced up mate. You have no one to blame here but yourself, stop trying to play the victim

ModeSkeletor

Well what's done is done. As far as I know you will lose your license for 2 years if it is your first conviction for drink driving:

(c) Exceeding 44 microgrammes but not exceeding 66 micorgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. - 2 years First offence

Very unlucky :-( It happened to my friend a while ago aswell but he was only disqualified for 1 year. I know people here will slate you for getting behind the wheel while still over the legal limit, but I can see your point that you had no intention of doing so. The only solution for yourself in the future, and for other people reading is to purchase a good breathalyzer device and test yourself before driving making sure you are WELL under the limit.

ModeSkeletor

Stekelly wrote: »

? No chance.

We should all just be more carefull. Even working on the rough 1 unit per hour system and add 2 hours should be enough.

I don't see what your problem is with people possessing their own breathalyzers. Think about it like this: If this guy had his own breathalyzer, he would NOT have driven to work that afternoon. That equals 1 less "over the limit" driver on our roads. Which in turn equals safer roads. What is your problem with that?

flanum

yeah i know, im not playing victim here, just think its crazy that if i had gone to work in the morning when i deffo would have been over, id have been ok.
also the fact that the man involved was telling me how he was only doing his job and "hows your mother and father these days, havent seen them in a long time, has your mother gotten over the stroke" while he was dancing a jig at the side of the road, delighted he got someone, and then they pulled the roadblock straight away, let everyone else through, they were just after one arrest that day! probably a bonus for them.
also the same cnut was done for shoplifting 18 months ago and is still a garda!

CodeMonkey

LOOK do you not get it? i took a half day off work so that i would be okay to drive, i felt ok, i felt confident enough to blow into the feckin bag instead of takin a turn off when i saw them... i hadnt drank for twelve hours or so. i felt fine... i see you live in tallaght where there are buses luases and taxis! good for you and your high horse!

What's the problem with not drinking so much that you have to take a half day off so that it's ok to drive? Even with the half day you still had too much alcohol in your system because you over did it. The problem is with your drinking. How you feel at the time when you got caught has nothing to do with it.

ModeSkeletor

CodeMonkey wrote: »

What's the problem with not drinking so much that you have to take a half day off so that it's ok to drive? Even with the half day you still had too much alcohol in your system because you over did it. The problem is with your drinking. How you feel at the time when you got caught has nothing to do with it.

I think his problem is the inadequate means available to self-acknowledge if you are over the limit or not. Should we all just never drive to work the morning after drinking (or even afternoon in this case).

Guy:Incognito

ModeSkeletor wrote: »

I don't see what your problem is with people possessing their own breathalyzers. Think about it like this: If this guy had his own breathalyzer, he would NOT have driven to work that afternoon. That equals 1 less "over the limit" driver on our roads. Which in turn equals safer roads. What is your problem with that?

Who said I had a problem with people having their own? I have a problem with expecting them to be provided for them by the government.

flanum wrote: »

LOOK do you not get it? i took a half day off work so that i would be okay to drive, i felt ok, i felt confident enough to blow into the feckin bag instead of takin a turn off when i saw them... i hadnt drank for twelve hours or so. i felt fine... i see you live in tallaght where there are buses luases and taxis! good for you and your high horse!

What has feelign ok got to do with it? I get the impression from your posts that when you added up the number of pints, divided by the number of hours (sleeping slows the process afaik) that you could now see why you were over the limit.

Lets say for instance that 12 pint taken 30 mins before the breadth test results in you blowing a 55 on the test. Whats the difference between that and your 55? None because the same level of alcohol is there.

What has where I live got to do with anything? If I can go out and get home without drink driving I will, if cant I dont. I drink. Quite often I drink a lot, but I deliberatly avoind drinking on Sunday nights and other week nights. If I havent got money for a taxi, I dont go out in the first place. TBH it doesnt bother me not going out, I dont really need to drink that often.

LAst Saturday I went out fot the Utd -Chelsea game. I decided I wanted to play my game of indoor at 5:30 so I didnt drink and drank coke instead so I could drive and play. I was in the pub for a good 6 hours without drinking, it's really not hard.

ModeSkeletor

Why shouldn't they be? It would probably remove most drink drivers from our roads. The costs would be recooperated in the reduction in injuries/deaths caused by these people.

CodeMonkey

ModeSkeletor wrote: »

I think his problem is the inadequate means available to self-acknowledge if you are over the limit or not. Should we all just never drive to work the morning after drinking (or even afternoon in this case).

I've seen self breathalyzers available in pharmacies. How many people do you think have gone to the trouble of getting one or finding out where to get one.

ModeSkeletor

Well then what is the problem with self-testing and choosing whether to drive or not based on that? You would think from your attitude that you enjoyed hearing about people being caught drink driving.

Guy:Incognito

ModeSkeletor wrote: »

Why shouldn't they be? It would probably remove most drink drivers from our roads. The costs would be recooperated in the reduction in injuries/deaths caused by these people.

Why the hell should they ? It's not the governments fault you can afford to get yourself so drunk you cant drive the next day buit are too cheap to buy yourself a readily available testing device.

We're all adults here. Grow up and take responsibility for yourselves instead of whinging at the government, or anybody for that matter, to do it for you.

Random

WHy do you not think the government could provide breathilizers? Instead of all those nonsense ads on TV they could send these out to us.

Let's face it - if someone is gonna drink and drive then they're gonna do it anyway. At least this way some people will have a chance to check their "ability" first.

Guy:Incognito

random wrote: »

WHy do you not think the government could provide breathilizers? Instead of all those nonsense ads on TV they could send these out to us.
.

Should they also invest in speed limiters and force us to have them installed so we cant break that law aswell? Or is it just this you want for free?

See my post above re:taking responsibilities for your own actions and growing up.

JC 2K3

But he did take responsibility, as he understood it, by stopping drinking at 12:30 and by taking half a day off work, which he reasoned would leave him under the limit for driving.

Introducing these new harsher drink driving limits is stupid unless every driver understands the implications of this. You can't just expect every driver to have a thorough understanding of how thier body breaks down alcohol. A blood alcohol limit means nothing to a driver who doesn't really understand it. You can't take responsibility for your actions if your understanding of what taking responsibility means is insufficient, as was the case for the OP, whom I sympathise with.

Oh, and I'd support speed limiters in cars. What's the point of having a car that can go faster than the speed limit?

flanum

Stekelly wrote: »

Should they also invest in speed limiters and force us to have them installed so we cant break that law aswell? Or is it just this you want for free?

See my post above re:taking responsibilities for your own actions and growing up.

Yes for that! speed restricters for the win!! what are our road taxes being used on? id be up for that, im sure if you could take the cars not being able to go faster than the speed limit then you might find a lot less deaths on the road, im sure if you look at the stats, i doubt if there is many fatalities of monday morning, let alone afternoon, id say most road deaths are facterd to speed.
i drive a van, i doubt if it could sorpass 100 let alone 110. id like to see restrictors enforced into all cars, sure there is no need for anything faster.

EamonnKeane

Stekelly wrote: »

What has feelign ok got to do with it?

Everything, you fool. The issue is whether his ability to drive is impaired, not whether he has a high contentration of a certain chemical in his blood. A 20-y-o with 2 pints in him is probably more alert and has better reactions than a sober 80-y-o, or a doctor who's just got off a 20-hour shift.

flanum

im 38, skinnyish a wee fella (just under ten stone, five foot 3), but fairly fit and active, so i dont know how that works metabolism-wise.

Axwell

EamonnKeane wrote: »

Everything, you fool. The issue is whether his ability to drive is impaired, not whether he has a high contentration of a certain chemical in his blood. A 20-y-o with 2 pints in him is probably more alert and has better reactions than a sober 80-y-o, or a doctor who's just got off a 20-hour shift.

Feeling ok is your own personal opinion at that time on whether you feel drunk or sober or hungover still, its hardly an exact evaluation on the matter. In your example above the fact still remains the 20 year old would be over the limit no matter how alert he feels, its a breathiliser not a reactions test so feeling ok means jack at the end of the day if your still over the limit.