Drink Driving

Lenny

Do you think Ireland has a big problem in drink driving?
Do we need more measures for Guarda to do?
Do we need more checkpoints?

In UK they're advertising that if you "squeel" on someone you know who drink & drives, you get a reward of £500, any chacne of that going to take place in here, would it even have much sucess, even more to the point, is it a good, strong idea to stop drink, driving?

Blitzkrieger

yes
no
maybe



drink driving is still a huge problem in Ireland despite all the campaigns against it. Are more checkpoints the answer? I never like that sort of solution, where you punish someone for comitting a crime, rather than prevent the crime.

Chris Rock came up with a good punishment. Send them to meet swirley man. Why swirley man? If they have to suck someone's dick they can pretend it's something else, but when they're giving a swirley they know it's ass!

mike65

Guarda?

Are you drunk?

Yes there is a problem mainly cultural so hard to fix,
the cops should have powers to stop and breathalize
on a ramdom basis, and the courts should have the power to
impound your car and sell it on to cover costs.
Those convicted should be made work the Accident and Emergency wards on weekend nights for a year.
Employers should sack those who are caught and er... okay
I'm not a total facist.

Lenny

You talk about breathalizing people..
Do you think its a good idea for the guardi to stand down the end of the road of the pub, and stop people who leave the pub with a few drinks on them as they go home,
would that be a good way to tackle the drink drivers?

WhiteWashMan

yes there is a problem with drink driving.
no we dont need more gardi to deal with it
checkpoints are always needed.

i had this argument on saturday with someone about drink driving in ireland. his point was that perticularly in rural reas, the pub was a focus point for social life etc. and what good is having a social life if you cant enjoy it?
my point was that it doesnt matter what context you put it in, if you are over the limit and hit and kill someone, you are a c*nt.

anyone, ANYONE, who drink drives and gets caught deserves to be put in jail. anyone who causes injury or death should be jailed and have their licence revoked. if you cant handle that, go to a coffee shop.

Nero

WhiteWashMan, I would be on the side of the person who you had the argument with. I live in a rural area and the pub IS the heart of the community. People have to drive to get there as there is nothing else for 3 miles let alone a coffee shop. I have no problem with a person driving with a few pints to get home because that is what we have to do.few It's the people that get sloshed and are too imature to give up their keys are the real problem.

WhiteWashMan

Originally posted by Nero
WhiteWashMan, I would be on the side of the person who you had the argument with. I live in a rural area and the pub IS the heart of the community. People have to drive to get there as there is nothing else for 3 miles let alone a coffee shop. I have no problem with a person driving with a few pints to get home because that is what we have to do.few It's the people that get sloshed and are too imature to give up their keys are the real problem.

i agree with you...
however, my point still remains, that if someone has 4 points. they arent drunk but the ability to drive carefully is seriously reduced.
now say you were good law abiding citizens and after a few drinks decided to walk home an your girlfriend was hit by this driver.
in fact, not only was your girlfriend hit, but she bounced of his bonnet with enough force to send her about 30 yards up the road where she lay bleeding with her brains dribbling out onto the road.
now can you honestly, with your hand on your heart turn around to me and then say, yes my girlfriend has been killed, but the lad just wanted a pint and to be sociable.

where do you draw the line?
do you think people in rural areas ought to be able to drink more and then drive than people in an urban area?
why cant you get taxis like everyone else?

have you ever seen the ad where they guy football, has a few and then turns the car over going into someones back yard?
personally i think its absolutely horrific and it brings tears to my eyes when i see it.
anyone who drinks and drives is in the wrong.
and if your excuse is that you need a bnit of socialising, then i think you need to rethink your views on the price of a human life.

TwoShedsJackson

Originally posted by OJ
You talk about breathalizing people..
Do you think its a good idea for the guardi to stand down the end of the road of the pub, and stop people who leave the pub with a few drinks on them as they go home,
would that be a good way to tackle the drink drivers?

Err, yes, obviously it would be.

neuro-praxis

I lived in a rural area with nothing around for miles. The idea that the pub could be the "heart of the community" is laughable. All the locals in this area drank very heavily, had no qualms about driving when drunk, and went on with that kind of irritating bullsh|t about the pub being the life and soul of the place. Four guys died, and one mother and her child were knocked down, all as a result of drink driving in that town, in the space of eight months. It goes on and on.

I'm sorry, but all the people that I met there who spent every night in the pub were the worst people I have ever met. The constant pub-going meant that none of them had ever read a book, or listened to music, or had taken an art class or gone to the gym...

It wasn't even just once a week. It was between three and seven nights a week.

I'm sorry, but there are alternatives to the pub no matter where you live. It's not necessary to make it the only place to meet people. Meeting at each other's houses? You can have a beer together there and people can stay over. Going into town for movies, restaurants, bowling, shopping?

If you can afford to drink a lot, then you also can afford a taxi. And all these areas have at least one taxi driver who will be willing to take people home.

It's a pathetic excuse and it makes me angry, because someday I could be knocked down and have my life ruined by some a$$hole who thinks its fine to have a few pints and then drive.

Nero, grow up.

Puck

That's a rediculous excuse! I live in the middle of nowhere, actually it's worse than that, I live on the outskirts of a vilage on a hill in the middle of nowhere!

There are people who say that it is alright to drink and drive as long as it is just a few sociable pints in the village too but they're gob****es! When somebody drinks and drives they are putting other people's lives at risk, they don't have that right!

As for the pub being the heart of the community. That's no excuse at all, if they're driving there's nothing stopping them from having a non-alcoholic drink, they could have a designated driver or simply call a bloody taxi. It wouldn't hurt them do meet up for some other (healthier perhaps) activity other than drinking. When sombody's life is potentially being put at risk they can bloody well cop on and make the effort!

Greenbean

If you were really in the middle of no-where you won't have many local pubs to goto, I know plenty of people who don't live within 5 miles of a pub and its simply not a part of their lives.. though society in general isn't a part of their lives. Point is though, its very possible for a society to exist and live without drink being there - they are irish, they are native and very much a part of the land. We've given up in our ability to comprehend drink as something external to our lives.. probably because we like it too much and don't want to tackle it.

I'm totaly with whitewashman on this one, no matter how he puts it :P, drink and drive and be damned, you deserve it. The little fishing village I live near has a taxi culture - its class; we've enough taxi's to put baggot street to shame and make many a dublin nightclub goer cry. You get driven from your house, into town, have a few pints, onto the nightclub 12 miles further from that and left back to your door again for 10 quid (not including drink) and that pays your way into the night club which is a fiver. The only thing you have to put up with is maybe 20 mins getting home while everyone is left home (no matter how remote). Its well well worth it, and in rural areas taxi's are abundant. There is no excuse for people to drink drive. The biggest drink drivers around our area used to be the gardi themselves. Culturally it is there, but one really easy solution is use the taxis, they're a pleasure to have.

Victor

Originally posted by Greenbean
If you were really in the middle of no-where you won't have many local pubs to goto, I know plenty of people who don't live within 5 miles of a pub and its simply not a part of their lives..

What minute fraction of the population does this include?

There a lot of people out there that need a bit of slapping, the gardai, drinkers and drivers in general.

Taking any drink before driving is lunacy and it is primarily complacancy that will get people killed this Christmas.

Originally posted by Nero
WhiteWashMan, I would be on the side of the person who you had the argument with. I live in a rural area and the pub IS the heart of the community. People have to drive to get there as there is nothing else for 3 miles let alone a coffee shop. I have no problem with a person driving with a few pints to get home because that is what we have to do.few It's the people that get sloshed and are too imature to give up their keys are the real problem.

And kindly explain to me why everyone has moved out of the villages into the surrounding countryside? You want services, go live in a village or town.

Whats a swirley man ..... ????

Hobbes

If you drive I think you shouldn't drink at all.

What is with the "Waaa but the pub is the social center", big swing. So you need to down a few pints to get social?

Here's a thought get a designated driver or take a taxi. If you really have to drink leave the car at home.

Really some of the attitudes on it are mind boggling. Anyone hear Gerry Ryan on the radio yesterday morning? Joe Dolan gets nabbed for drink driving and Gerry says "Hard luck getting caught there Joe" and goes on about how it's ok because everyone does it.

Xterminator

Drinking and driving ins inexcusable.
I find it mindblowing that there are still eejits that trot out the tired old excuses.

In response to OJ, I think that the guards should be placed within sight of the exit to the pubs car park, and breathalise everyone leaving the premises in a motor vehicle. Obviously they cannot be at every pub every nite, but if it hapened a few times, the locals might get the message.

Seeing as drinking and driving is illegal in this country, could someone explain to me why pubs have such big car parks?

X

Red Moose

Maybe a quick help would be for pubs to have those drink-driving testers for a few quid that you blow into, or hold up near you rmouth to see how much over the limit you are. I've seen them in one pub in Ireland ever, for £3, but they were in the bathroom. Maybe selling them at the bar, in front of the taps would get people at least to think about it.

I remember about 2 years ago I read that some tablet/drug was being developed that would sober a person up in around 2 minutes (by metabolising all the unused alcohol and fux0ring up the nasty substances really quickly). Haven't read anything about it since (no comparison yet with such methods and big alcohol companies, compared to fuel cells and big oil companies..... ).

That new "IT" thing might be a solution. The two wheeled electric thing that's been hyped for a few years now (made the papers a few weeks ago) - if you can drive it while drunk I'd get one. 12mph max. They could do it so it stops as soon as you let go of the handle (like water jetskiis).

bonkey

To all those people who argue the "social life of rural Ireland" point, I have this to say :

Horse manure. Utter and total methan-emitting excrement.

What you are arguing is not that the pub is the social life of rural Ireland, but that alcohol is. Pubs sell more than just alcohol. You can go to the pub, be sociable, and not drink alcohol. It has been done.

Basically, the argument boils down to "we want to be allowed to get drunk and drive". Which is a central problem in Ireland. It is not about transport, or availability thereof, it is that we have what is euphemistically called "a pub culture" which roughly translates to "a drinking culture".

You want your drink, not your pub. Well, I'm sorry, but you cant have it. Not if you want to drive a car.

You can cry "unfair" all you want, due to living in rural areas, but I dont hear the same people saying "its so unfair that we dont have a multiplex around the corner cause we live in rural areas". Nope - its only ever "we have to drink and drive because otherwise we have no social life".

Rubbish. You choose that social life, and you choose to drink alcohol. I'm sorry, but those choices mean you should not be allowed to choose to drive. If you make that choice, you break the law as much as the Dublinite making the same choice, and I dont care what argument you put forward, if you're caught, you should have your license revoked at the very least.

Newsflash - if it was your mum, your dad, you brother, sister, lover, best friend, or anyone else you were close to who got smashed to smithereens by someone who was just "a bit over the limit", youd change your tone pretty feckin quickly.

I live in Switzerland at the moment. There are large expanses of rural areas around here. You get caught over the limit, it is mandatory that you lose your license for a minimum of 3 months, and get slapped for a fine. You cause an accident, and you're in all kinds of hell. There is no excuse offered or accepted about "but I live in the arseend of the Emmental, and I need my car". If you try it, the answer will be "Then you shouldnt have driven while under the influence, should you."

Draconian, sure. But it works, and it works well.

jc

Hobbes

Originally posted by Red Moose
I remember about 2 years ago I read that some tablet/drug was being developed that would sober a person up in around 2 minutes

It's been around a lot longer then 2 years. The problem with it isn't that it makes you sober, it's that a person can continue to drink after they take the tablet which will allow them to consume enough drink to kill themselves.

Plus it's effects are only temporary.

seamus

Xterminator, I have always wondered that. We don't want ppl to drink drive, but still some pubs have space for maybe 1 hundred cars. Take out staff cars and ppl who don't drink and you'd still be left with 40/50 cars that are going to be under the control of a drunk tonight. Enact a law that pubs may only have parking for staff and on-street parking is either illegall or very expensive in the local area. Then how many ppl will walk or get a taxi?

IMHO, a lot of blame lies with the gardai as well as the citizens. Most of the serious accidents happen outside of Dublin, and I have talked to many, many people from the country who go for a few pints, and when they come out of the pub, the gardai take the keys off the people who are really legless, but the next drunk person, they simply follow him home in his car!!!! wtf is that about? The whole close-knit community/gardai thing is something which should be addressed, like the catholic church did. They have a policy of moving most of their people around, to avoid them getting too 'in' with the locals, and favouring some people over non-locals. I think this should be done with the gardai.

And, and some super in the country somewhere decided that, over Christmas, on weekends, any young person caught driving on a first provisional, but on their own, will be forced to leave their car and walk home, and maybe even their parents could be charged(if it's their car). Hmmm....and the reason is to 'prevent serious accidents from happening, because a lot of people go out on the roads with a few drinks on them, and young drivers would not know how to respond properly to the danger'. emm wtf? You take the drink drivers off the road, not take the obstacles out of their way!!!!:mad:

And yes gardai should be allowed breathalyse anyone on the spot, and all ppl involved in RTA's should also be mandatorily breathalysed.

Von

When I was a student, I used to live with a chap from a well off family. He had been to some posh school or other where they did stuff like classical studies and art for soft honours. Despite this, he finished bottom in his class and was proud of it. Discovering he was useless at his college course, he went to join the cops. At his interview he was asked "what's the legal limit for drinking and driving?" His answer : "Ehhh a few pints I think but I know a fella who can drink ten pints and drive home no bother." He's now a cop in charge of public safety. May whatever pig god is out there help us all.

WhiteWashMan

Originally posted by seamus
Xterminator, I have always wondered that. We don't want ppl to drink drive, but still some pubs have space for maybe 1 hundred cars. Take out staff cars and ppl who don't drink and you'd still be left with 40/50 cars that are going to be under the control of a drunk tonight. Enact a law that pubs may only have parking for staff and on-street parking is either illegall or very expensive in the local area. Then how many ppl will walk or get a taxi?

so now you cant drive to the pub?
many people do drive and not drink.
what about people who drive and get a taxi home?
i do it all the time.

Originally posted by seamus


IMHO, a lot of blame lies with the gardai as well as the citizens. Most of the serious accidents happen outside of Dublin, and I have talked to many, many people from the country who go for a few pints, and when they come out of the pub, the gardai take the keys off the people who are really legless, but the next drunk person, they simply follow him home in his car!!!! wtf is that about? The whole close-knit community/gardai thing is something which should be addressed, like the catholic church did. They have a policy of moving most of their people around, to avoid them getting too 'in' with the locals, and favouring some people over non-locals. I think this should be done with the gardai.

the blame does not lie with the gardi.
it lies with the people who drink and drive.
period!

oh, and gardi are moved around. why do you think all the bog trotter gardi are in dublin?

Originally posted by seamus
And, and some super in the country somewhere decided that, over Christmas, on weekends, any young person caught driving on a first provisional, but on their own, will be forced to leave their car and walk home, and maybe even their parents could be charged(if it's their car). Hmmm....and the reason is to 'prevent serious accidents from happening, because a lot of people go out on the roads with a few drinks on them, and young drivers would not know how to respond properly to the danger'. emm wtf? You take the drink drivers off the road, not take the obstacles out of their way!!!!:mad:
.

its illegal to be in charge of a car on your first provisional.
you can be put in jail for it.
it is a crime.
hell why youre on about it, maybe we can let the murderers and rapists of becuase, well, it was their first time, and they didnt mean it, and they were drunk!

Originally posted by seamus
:

And yes gardai should be allowed breathalyse anyone on the spot, and all ppl involved in RTA's should also be mandatorily breathalysed.

oh, an ounce of sense....

seamus

Originally posted by WhiteWashMan

so now you cant drive to the pub?
many people do drive and not drink.
what about people who drive and get a taxi home?
i do it all the time.

Me too. OK, the on-street stuff would be a tad harsh, but personally I'd have no problem walking/getting a taxi/bus if it meant there were fewer people driving there, drinking and driving home again.

Originally posted by WhiteWashMan
the blame does not lie with the gardi.
it lies with the people who drink and drive.
period!

oh, and gardi are moved around. why do you think all the bog trotter gardi are in dublin?

OK, phrased that very badly. What I mean is that drink driving is hard to crack down on when there are certain gardai carrying on as I described. Of course people shouldn't think that just because they can get away with it, then it's ok, but people being people......... As for gardai being moved around, I know they get stationed somewhere other then their home town, but do they not then (generally) stay there for 10-15 years or until they get promoted/request a transfer. Feel free to correct me I'm only speculating from what I see, but these could be isolated examples.

Originally posted by WhiteWashMan
its illegal to be in charge of a car on your first provisional.
you can be put in jail for it.
it is a crime.
hell why youre on about it, maybe we can let the murderers and rapists of becuase, well, it was their first time, and they didnt mean it, and they were drunk!

That's not what I was debating. I drove for almost a year on a first provisional with noone in the car with me, and looking back, I spent the first 4 months scaring the shït out of myself. They should be enforcing this law anyway, not selecting when they want to enforce it. We should really be complaining that they aren't enforcing it all the time, instead of just at w/e's at christmas time.

Lenny

What about the £500 reward, should that be brought into Eire?
Would you report your neighbour for a £500 reward if you knew he drank & drive on a regular basis?
Or would you report him even if there was no reward involved

crano

I love nothing better than to drink seven pint's of Scrumpy Jack
and race my car up the hill home:p :

Shred

I drive and as far as i'm concerned when i'm driving, drinking is just not an option. Point blank. Not even one pint. I couldn't give a damn where you live.

As for the £500 fine, there's a few people i've thought about reporting who do it regularly without these fines, it makes me sick to the teeth. The thing that pisses me off about them is their attitude of "ah it'll be alright", until the time comes when they injure or kill someone. Also this crap of "oh jaysus, you can't drink and drive these days, you can get caught too easily...". This is the kind of thing you hear mainly from the older folk, they don't seem to even think about the possibility of killing someone - just that they might get caught! FFS

People caught drinking and driving should be banned for life, end of, maybe then they'll think twice before doing it.

DeVore

what shred said.

DeV.

Lenny

They don't get a £500 fine
the person who reports them ie. you get a £500 reward for reporting every person you report that drink & drives

Slydice

Originally posted by OJ
Do you think Ireland has a big problem in drink driving?

Yes, People die because of Drunk Driving, Families lose Fathers Mothers, Brothers, Sisters....

I would never get into a car with drink, I wouldn't allow for the possibility, I don't think the cost of a Taxi is that much in comparison to someone's life.

If you plead poverty.. Go to a supermarket and get that cheap stuff,

If you plead social aspects ( if you know what i mean ) I'm sure theres plenty of non alcoholic activities you could become involved in, if you really feel the need to show off your car to whoever.

I don't care about legalities, i'm sure even 1 pint can still affect your ability to drive.

Shred

Sorry OJ, got a tad mixed up whilst writing! That's what i meant, ie that without the £500 reward , i've thought about reporting someone.....

And Slydice, you're right. Even one pint does affect your ability to judge things, especially at speed. I think the legal intake is something like 500ml or less, just under a pint.

bonkey

Originally posted by Slydice
I would never get into a car with drink,

I would. No problems.

I'd just never consider sitting in the drivers seat

jc

Bard

Originally posted by OJ
What about the £500 reward, should that be brought into Eire?

Yes.

Would you report your neighbour for a £500 reward if you knew he drank & drive on a regular basis?

Yes.

Or would you report him even if there was no reward involved

Yes.

No mercy. Zero tolerance.

My girlfriend died 7 years ago as the result of an accident caused by a drunk driver.

She was on her way from Liverpool to Scotland with her family. She wasn't wearing her seatbelt and was in the passenger seat when a truck, controlled by a drunk, careened across the dual carriageway, through the hedges in the centre section and slammed into the front of their car. She was thrown through the windscreen and ended up at the front of the bonnet. She was rushed to hospital where she died one week later.

So, as you can probably imagine, I have very little time for drink-drivers and their utterly pathetic excuses.

=-=-=-=-

This Christmas, if you're going out for a few pints with your mates, designate someone who will remain sober to be the driver to get you all home, or plan to get a taxi at the end of the night.

Shred

Jesus, Bard. That's heavy ****.

Well maybe it'll bring home the stupidity of the whole thing to some people....

WhiteWashMan

jesus bard, you have nt had much luck in life have you
anyway, ive ploughed my own car into a ditch whilst drunk, so it is an experience i never wish to repeat again.

Puck

Originally posted by OJ
What about the £500 reward, should that be brought into Eire?
Would you report your neighbour for a £500 reward if you knew he drank & drive on a regular basis?
Or would you report him even if there was no reward involved

Yes it should be brought in over here. I'd report them anyway though.
Zero-tolerance!:mad: