Finished drinking vodka at 5am. Can I drive now?

Never drink and drive, rarely even drink, but I think there is a bit of hysteria emerging about drunk driving. Of course driving while drunk is dangerous, but I don’t really believe having a pint and then driving home is dangerous. Not for nearly all males anyway. Having a few (3-4) and driving after seven hours sleep isn’t dangerous either, most people who take a drink would know that also.

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

Never drink and drive, rarely even drink, but I think there is a bit of hysteria emerging about drunk driving. Of course driving while drunk is dangerous, but I don’t really believe having a pint and then driving home is dangerous. Not for nearly all males anyway. Having a few (3-4) and driving after seven hours sleep isn’t dangerous either, most people who take a drink would know that also.

One pint may put you over the limit if you drive straight away and could slightly impair your alertness.

3/4 pints and then seven hours sleep and you're almost certainly under the limit.

The issue here is people having 2-4 pints then driving home that evening or 8-12 pints then thinking they're safe the following morning.

Magnus Famous Campground wrote: »

If drink was the actual cause then yes but there are many other causes to be equally or more crucial off.



I wouldn’t really care what the cause was to be honest I’d be critical of them regardless if it was their fault. Do you think it’s any consultation that someone was killed and drink wasn’t involved?

Also drunk driving is a very different thing than skirting around the limit which is the case for most morning drivers. So if an actual drink driver caused a death it’s obviously someone to be very critical about.

RSA categorically said 11% of fatalities caused by morning drivers. Whatever the circumstances of the crash someone over the limit will be held to blame. Normal reaction speeds just won't be present.

If a drunk driver kills a child in the morning then it's going to be their fault. Why not lessen the chances of that happening - not driving after a big session the night before, not driving alone without a full licence, not driving tired or using a mobile while at the wheel.

I'm not a paragon of virtue. I also don't agree with the justice system on everything but I do with regards to people driving a lethal weapon when they're a potential risk.

Magnus Famous Campground wrote: »

You are being badly fooled by the RSAs wording and very careful construction of sentences, which is their intention of course. Look not everyone can see through them as easy as I can but when people are clearly shown what their are doing and still ignore it we know their is either an agenda or an inability to understand at play.

Feel free to continue ignoring the morning after drunk-driving deaths in 2018. And 2019. What will it take to stop you driving over the limit in the morning?

HBC08 wrote: »

Off the top of my head the radio campaign says 10% of road deaths due to alcohol happen between 7am and 11am the morning after (open to correction on this)

Bearing this in mind why is there such a disproportionate amount of checks in the morning?

Because its easier to arrest the sober person on the way to work, than it is to arrest a person that might actually be drunk, at night.


Gardai showed themselves in a very poor light ('revenue enforcers' rather than 'police service') when they started pulling people the following morning and nailing them for being marginally over the limit, even though the person would be completely safe to drive.




There's a nonsense hysteria that if you have a single drink and get into the car, you're a murdering psychopath, despite the fact you are likely 100% grand and any accident that may happen would likely have happened anyway.

Seathrun66 wrote: »

One pint may put you over the limit if you drive straight away and could slightly impair your alertness.

3/4 pints and then seven hours sleep and you're almost certainly under the limit.

The issue here is people having 2-4 pints then driving home that evening or 8-12 pints then thinking they're safe the following morning.

Its a very rare man who would be impacted by one pint.

It’s not taboo in rural areas among people who might do it, guys who frequent relatively isolated pubs and for whom that is an important part of their social life. Among the wider rural population it is not commonplace anymore.