Do you drink and drive?

wow sierra · 13-11-2006 03:10AM

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 · 13-11-2006 07:48AM

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 · 13-11-2006 10:25AM

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 · 13-11-2006 11:47AM

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 · 13-11-2006 12:11PM

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 · 13-11-2006 12:35PM

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 · 13-11-2006 01:09PM

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 · 13-11-2006 05:48PM

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 · 13-11-2006 06:05PM

Drink driving is the new child molesting

Sam Vimes · 13-11-2006 06:23PM

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 · 13-11-2006 06:39PM

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 · 13-11-2006 06:45PM

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 · 13-11-2006 06:46PM

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 · 13-11-2006 06:51PM

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 · 13-11-2006 06:55PM

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 · 13-11-2006 06:59PM

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 · 13-11-2006 07:00PM

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 · 13-11-2006 07:02PM

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 · 13-11-2006 07:05PM

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 · 13-11-2006 07:09PM

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.

fits · 13-11-2006 07:10PM

Blisterman wrote:

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

Is there any logic in there anywhere??? Cos I sure as hell dont know what you are on about!

pbsuxok1znja4r · 13-11-2006 07:13PM

I drink and drive. Does anyone have anything they'd like to say to me?

[Edit]: Ohhh, you mean at the same time? :rolleyes:

Sam Vimes · 13-11-2006 07:15PM

fits wrote:

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.

well if no one does anything about it there'll never be one. all you'd have to do is the get barman to make an announcement about it next week and the following week a bus could be arranged to bring anyone who wants to and from the pub. it'd only cost a few euro each and save lives. give it a shot and see how easy it is.

fits wrote:

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.

i think that the only problem with that is all the other people drink driving on the roads. a sober driver would easily avoid someone in a hi-vis jacket

fits · 13-11-2006 07:22PM

Commander Vimes wrote:

i think that the only problem with that is all the other people drink driving on the roads. a sober driver would easily avoid someone in a hi-vis jacket

you obviously dont know the roads around Dingle too well...
And perhaps drunken walking home should be banned too.

Sam Vimes · 13-11-2006 07:47PM

fits wrote:

you obviously dont know the roads around Dingle too well...
And perhaps drunken walking home should be banned too.

do these roads absorb the light emitted by a hi-vis jacket? i see no reason why a sober person driving at a safe speed would hit someone wearing a hi-vis jacket, regardless of road conditions.

why should drunken walking home be banned? if people want to put themselves at risk that's their problem, but when they get behind the wheel of a car, they make it my problem

DublinWriter · 13-11-2006 07:57PM

Budd wrote:

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.

Until you kill someone.

Sure you can take drugs, but do you really want to be in charge of a half-ton of metal travelling at speed at the same time?

Obviously you're thick enough to be in the 'will never happen to me camp'.

F*ck yourself up all you like, but don't do it to innocent bystanders.

I was listening to an interview on Radio 1 with a reformed alcho ex-guard recently. He said he used to dread getting up in the morning and looking at the front of his car for the fear that he'd have a body under it.

Having said all that, I think drink-driving these days in general is much less a danger than the reckless driving of the dickless early 20-somethings driving a 'pimp-my-Punto' cock-subsitute.

ArphaRima · 13-11-2006 08:19PM

Obviously you're thick enough to be in the 'will never happen to me camp'.

I live my entire life by that motto. So does everyone. Otherwise I'd live in a giant sealed bubble, just in case of "something" happening.

What everyone looks for is a decision that balances risks. Acceptable risks. A few years ago drink driving was an acceptable risk. Today it is not. To be caught means stiff sentencing, social stigma, and generally more negative consequences.

Drink driving is the new child molesting

Agreed, which is why its so bloody difficult to have a reasonable discussion on the topic.

I reckon over 60% of people between 20 and 35 are over the limit when they "pop down the shops" for their sunday brekkie and newspaper. The gardai are well aware of this. I dont think many people are. Most people reckon a kebab and a sleep sobers you. A kebab slows the sobering process, and the sleep does too. I know that a heavy binge can have you over the limit until the following night.
Many people who scream about drink driving do it themselves. Only they think that the statistics are about ratarsed drunk teenagers wiping out families on the Nxx at 1am. It isnt. It includes everyone who is breathylised after a 20kph fender-bender on sunday morning. Likewise the guy who had less than one drink, is below the limit and wipes out into a tree. His accident is attributed to drink. It might not matter that the guy who made him swerve was sober, or that both were travelling at 10mph over the speed limit. It will be a "factor", and therefore quotable under statistics for drink driving.
Only food for thought. You gotta think beyond a drink driving shock campaign to real people.

dvega · 13-11-2006 08:35PM

Well a guard friend of mine said that your allowed 2 pints,but in my opinion its how much you can tolerate drink,some people can be fine after 3 or 4 pints others cant even walk straight after the same.I have drove drunk before and when i think about the next day i just chringe but i havent done it the past year and i will never do it again.One thing i cant stand tho,is people living in towns or cities and just too lazy to walk down the street and decide to drive while people like me who live a couple of miles away have to order taxis or bum a lift,i think its too dangerous to walk any road at night nowadays.

Blisterman · 13-11-2006 08:43PM

fits wrote:

Is there any logic in there anywhere??? Cos I sure as hell dont know what you are on about!

What I mean is that if you take drugs, the worst case scenario is you die, and you alone.
When you drink and drive, you could kill other people than yourself.

Sam Vimes · 13-11-2006 09:46PM

Blisterman wrote:

What I mean is that if you take drugs, the worst case scenario is you die, and you alone.
When you drink and drive, you could kill other people than yourself.

i think other people are talking about taking drugs and driving, rather than just taking them

Do you drink and drive?

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