Drink-driving

aloyisious · 13-12-2012 03:15PM #1

This report is from today's Irish Indo' and has left me in a WTF mood, how has this gent still got a driving licence (assuming he's not driving without one and insurance)? According to the report, he has been convicted 26 times for drink driving offences.

A MIDDLE-AGED man has been caught for drink-driving a staggering 26 times in the past four years.

Almost 150 others have been nabbed as many as ten times, gardai disclosed today.

And Irish drivers account for three-quarters of all repeat drink-drive offenders caught by gardai and convicted, followed by Latvians ( 34.4pc ) and (Lithuanians 34.2pc).

More than 300 drink drivers were drunk behind the wheel at least four times between 2008 and last month, according to the Garda report on recidivist drink drivers released at Garda Traffic HQ in Dublin Castle today.

An analysis of 61,874 drink drivers over the four-year period from 2008 until the start of this month found that while 48,202 had committed just one offence, others were repeat offenders.

Shocking statistics show one driver was convicted 26 times in the four years for drink-driving, five offenders had ten more drink drive offences, a further 145 were linked to between five and nine detections.

A further 4,580 were caught twice, 873 drivers three times, 249 motorists had four convictions for drink-driving, 87 were nabbed five times, and 63 had six or more offences.

And while the number of drink-driving offences has more than halved in four years, the report reveals that a significant number of cases involved a male driver, aged 23-32 caught with more than twice the new 50mg legal alcohol limit.

Half of male drink drivers aged 38-47 had more than three times the alcohol limit.

While the number of checkpoints has risen by 3pc, there has been a steady drop in the numbers arrested for drink-driving – down from 19,848 during 2008 to 8,747 at the start of this month.

Death and Taxes · 13-12-2012 03:19PM

Thats unreal, clearly these people should be stopped. IMO anyone caught drink driving while disqualified should have to forfiet the car they were driving to the state, regardless of who the registered owner is.
Same goes for those who are serial tax and insurance evaders!

summerskin · 13-12-2012 03:19PM

shure what's the world coming to when a fella can't have a dozen pints and drive home, with no lights on, in the rain, without the bleedin Gards shtopping him? madness.

rubberdiddies · 13-12-2012 03:20PM

WileyCoyote wrote: »

Thats unreal, clearly these people should be stopped. IMO anyone caught drink driving while disqualified should have to forfiet the car they were driving to the state, regardless of who the registered owner is.
Same goes for those who are serial tax and insurance evaders!

anyone caught drink driving while disqualified should have a mandatory sentence imposed. 2 years should do it!

summerskin · 13-12-2012 03:21PM

On a serious note there's a bloke in my village who says the local gard is out to get him. he said to me..

"He's banked me three times for being over the limit, and he says if he catches me again he's going to have to do me for it. the cúnt."

repsol · 13-12-2012 03:23PM

aloyisious wrote: »

This report is from today's Irish Indo' and has left me in a WTF mood, how has this gent still got a driving licence (assuming he's not driving without one and insurance)? According to the report, he has been convicted 26 times for drink driving offences.

A MIDDLE-AGED man has been caught for drink-driving a staggering 26 times in the past four years.

Almost 150 others have been nabbed as many as ten times, gardai disclosed today.

And Irish drivers account for three-quarters of all repeat drink-drive offenders caught by gardai and convicted, followed by Latvians ( 34.4pc ) and (Lithuanians 34.2pc).

More than 300 drink drivers were drunk behind the wheel at least four times between 2008 and last month, according to the Garda report on recidivist drink drivers released at Garda Traffic HQ in Dublin Castle today.

An analysis of 61,874 drink drivers over the four-year period from 2008 until the start of this month found that while 48,202 had committed just one offence, others were repeat offenders.

Shocking statistics show one driver was convicted 26 times in the four years for drink-driving, five offenders had ten more drink drive offences, a further 145 were linked to between five and nine detections.

A further 4,580 were caught twice, 873 drivers three times, 249 motorists had four convictions for drink-driving, 87 were nabbed five times, and 63 had six or more offences.

And while the number of drink-driving offences has more than halved in four years, the report reveals that a significant number of cases involved a male driver, aged 23-32 caught with more than twice the new 50mg legal alcohol limit.

Half of male drink drivers aged 38-47 had more than three times the alcohol limit.

While the number of checkpoints has risen by 3pc, there has been a steady drop in the numbers arrested for drink-driving – down from 19,848 during 2008 to 8,747 at the start of this month.

Who the hell is INSURING this guy? He either has no cover or has not informed his insurer of his history(which invalidates his cover anyway).I cannot believe he tells anyone about all those convictions and they quote him.:mad:

summerskin · 13-12-2012 03:23PM

The worst offenders where I live are the farmers who go out drinking from about noon til 4pm and then drive the tractor home utterly plastered, i've seen one of them struggling to even climb in to the tractor before driving off quite a few times after drinking 8 pints of porter and most of a bottle of Hennessy. Gards are never out at that time so they get away with it.

Holsten · 13-12-2012 03:24PM

WileyCoyote wrote: »

Thats unreal, clearly these people should be stopped. IMO anyone caught drink driving while disqualified should have to forfiet the car they were driving to the state, regardless of who the registered owner is.
Same goes for those who are serial tax and insurance evaders!

Bit silly... someone borrows your car, they drink drive without your knowledge and you get punished for it?

Death and Taxes · 13-12-2012 03:26PM

Holsten wrote: »

Bit silly... someone borrows your car, they drink drive without your knowledge and you get punished for it?

Serves you right for allowing a drunk to borrow your car, drastic situations require drastic remedies!

Sky King · 13-12-2012 03:30PM

Ah shure we'll chance the wan, they'll hardly be out in the rain would they?

Bruce7 · 13-12-2012 03:31PM

aloyisious wrote: »

And Irish drivers account for three-quarters of all repeat drink-drive offenders caught by gardai and convicted, followed by Latvians ( 34.4pc ) and (Lithuanians 34.2pc).

Something wrong here.

75% + 34.4% + 34.2% = 143.6%

Donnielighto · 13-12-2012 03:36PM

aloyisious wrote: »

And Irish drivers account for three-quarters of all repeat drink-drive offenders caught by gardai and convicted, followed by Latvians ( 34.4pc ) and (Lithuanians 34.2pc).

Interceptor · 13-12-2012 03:38PM

Zero tolerance for repeat offenders. Crush the car, disqualify the license, lock up the driver.

No excuses.

'cptr

qz · 13-12-2012 03:43PM

Zero tolerance for repeat offenders. Crush the driver, disqualify the car, lock up the license.

No excuses.

Interceptor · 13-12-2012 03:45PM

qz wrote: »

Zero tolerance for repeat offenders. Crush the driver, disqualify the car, lock up the license.

No excuses.

Yeah, I'm ok with this version too.

'c

13-12-2012 03:46PM

WileyCoyote wrote: »

Serves you right for allowing a drunk to borrow your car, drastic situations require drastic remedies!

What's the betting that they were stone cold sober when they collected the car, then what!

Topper Harley · 13-12-2012 03:50PM

WileyCoyote wrote: »

Serves you right for allowing a drunk to borrow your car, drastic situations require drastic remedies!

Ah come on now, I'm all for throwing the book at these repeat offenders but let's not throw out the baby with the bath water.

If you lend your car to someone or share a car, you've about as much control over the other person's actions as you do the weather.

Massive fines and/or jail sentences for the offender makes sense.

justaskin likeyakno · 13-12-2012 03:52PM

summerskin wrote: »

The worst offenders where I live are the farmers who go out drinking from about noon til 4pm and then drive the tractor home utterly plastered, i've seen one of them struggling to even climb in to the tractor before driving off quite a few times after drinking 8 pints of porter and most of a bottle of Hennessy. Gards are never out at that time so they get away with it.

Would you consider reporting him or others you knew were constantly doing it, and do you and other posters think the publican should be held accountable for any regular drinkers they know are conciously drink driver...or unconciously, as the case may be.

summerskin · 13-12-2012 03:56PM

justaskin likeyakno wrote: »

Would you consider reporting him or others you knew were constantly doing it, and do you and other posters think the publican should be held accountable for any regular drinkers they know are conciously drink driver...or unconciously, as the case may be.

It's the Gard's job to catch them, not mine. I rarely witness it anyway now due to work, and if I did by the time the Gards got there from the nearest station 13 miles away(local one is only open 3 hours per week maximum), the farmer would be home and hosed and could just say he had a drink when he got home.

As for the publican, no. They're not there to nanny people, the individual makes their choice of whether to drive or not. I do think publicans should stop serving someone once they are smashed though, and most of them where I live already do that.

justaskin likeyakno · 13-12-2012 03:59PM

summerskin wrote: »

It's the Gard's job to catch them, not mine. I rarely witness it anyway now due to work, and if I did by the time the Gards got there from the nearest station 13 miles away(local one is only open 3 hours per week maximum), the farmer would be home and hosed and could just say he had a drink when he got home.

As for the publican, no. They're not there to nanny people, the individual makes their choice of whether to drive or not. I do think publicans should stop serving someone once they are smashed though, and most of them where I live already do that.

Yeah, I was just wondering, I reported some local lads for dangerous driving once, it came to nothing because I would have had to go to court etc and the guard told me they'd probably get revenge anyway. I reported them coz they nearly ran me off the road.

After another incident I confronted the guys in the local shop, as they went in before me after acting the ass on the road, they were mortified, I took their reg and chances are they will have to drive into the ditch someday meeting a wide tractor..

aloyisious · 13-12-2012 07:50PM

Bruce7 wrote: »

Something wrong here.

75% + 34.4% + 34.2% = 143.6%

It's probable that the percentages above relate to the those not part of the Irish-national part of the percentage-pie.

aloyisious · 13-12-2012 07:51PM

Donnielighto wrote: »

It's probable that the percentages above relate to the those not part of the Irish-national part of the percentage-pie.

supackofidiots · 13-12-2012 07:52PM

Have drunk drove about 7 or 8 times, usually when I'm I've black out mode.
Off the drink a while now so hasn't happened recently.
Thank God though that I got away with it when I did do it!

Aciiiiiiiiiiid · 13-12-2012 08:12PM

I think drink drivers should get 200 years jail sentence and a fine of €7 million, their family put in stocks in the local village and humiliated by having tomatoes thrown at them.

/standard over-reaction by people who thankfully will never be allowed near the judicial system.

It wasn't me! · 13-12-2012 08:20PM

supackofidiots wrote: »

Thank God though that I got away with it when I did do it!

Or maybe thank god that you didn't kill someone. Getting away with it seems rather trivial by comparison.

jaffacakesyum · 13-12-2012 08:45PM

Aciiiiiiiiiiid wrote: »

I think drink drivers should get 200 years jail sentence and a fine of €7 million, their family put in stocks in the local village and humiliated by having tomatoes thrown at them.

/standard over-reaction by people who thankfully will never be allowed near the judicial system.

Don't think anyones over-reacted like that in this thread.

If your caught drunk driving once - get a fine
If your caught drunk driving twice - get a massive fine + license taken off you permanantly

There's no excuse for drunk driving. I don't give a sh1t if you want to put your own life at risk but what gives you the right to put others? (not calling you a drunk driver by the way, that just goes to all the sympathisers)

Aciiiiiiiiiiid · 13-12-2012 08:59PM

jaffacakesyum wrote: »

Don't think anyones over-reacted like that in this thread.

If your caught drunk driving once - get a fine
If your caught drunk driving twice - get a massive fine + license taken off you permanantly

There's no excuse for drunk driving. I don't give a sh1t if you want to put your own life at risk but what gives you the right to put others? (not calling you a drunk driver by the way, that just goes to all the sympathisers)

Why not apply that to all road traffic violations? Caught speeding once - get a fine, caught speeding twice - license gone permanently. Speeding is arguably a lot more dangerous in my opinion. I've seen the difference between aftermaths of crashes involving high speed and low speed. It's the difference between a few smashed lights and bumper damage, and some slight whiplash - to the car and it's occupants being liquified and unrecognizable.

So yeah.

Talking on mobile phone is also highly dangerous when driving, let's take peoples licenses away who do that twice too.

(My point being, thank f**k the laws are made by rational people and not the dramatic internet high horse brigade)

Topper Harley · 13-12-2012 09:15PM

jaffacakesyum wrote: »

There's no excuse for drunk driving. I don't give a sh1t if you want to put your own life at risk but what gives you the right to put others? (not calling you a drunk driver by the way, that just goes to all the sympathisers)

Not sympathising or making excuses here, you're absolutely right that there's no excuse for drunk driving but let's call a spade a shovel - every time anyone travels in a car they are risking their lives and the lives of others, adding a drunk driver or excessive speed just adds to the risk.

It's still completely unacceptable, but with safety standards ever increasing the level of risk that most people are willing to accept is declining and some people are just slower to adjust to that.

It could be argued that if you're willing to accept some level of risk, why not a bit more. But I'm not arguing that, just playing devil's advocate.

Capt'n Midnight · 13-12-2012 10:02PM

What are the current sentencing guidelines for drink driving ?

And are they being followed.

iamstop · 13-12-2012 10:05PM

Just over a month ago an old friend of mine got knock down by a drunk drive, hit and run. The cops found the driver a few blocks away and he had previous convictions for drink driving. My mate died a week later.
There just is no excuses.

jaffacakesyum · 13-12-2012 10:13PM

Aciiiiiiiiiiid wrote: »

Why not apply that to all road traffic violations? Caught speeding once - get a fine, caught speeding twice - license gone permanently. Speeding is arguably a lot more dangerous in my opinion. I've seen the difference between aftermaths of crashes involving high speed and low speed. It's the difference between a few smashed lights and bumper damage, and some slight whiplash - to the car and it's occupants being liquified and unrecognizable.

So yeah.

Talking on mobile phone is also highly dangerous when driving, let's take peoples licenses away who do that twice too.

(My point being, thank f**k the laws are made by rational people and not the dramatic internet high horse brigade)

I do agree with this, actually and this comes from someone who has speeded before (60 in a 50 zone kinda thing, not major speeding). If you're taking the risk of breaking the laws, take the consequences. Take some responsibility.

For the speeding though, for it to be feasable there would need to be guidelines regarding how severe the speeding needs to be for you to get your license taken off you. If you're caught twice doing 120 on a 60 limit, I absolutely believe your license should be taken. The laws are there for a reason. I'm not gonna lie it would suck for some people but if it saves peoples lives I'm all for it.

Also, it REALLY adds to your arguement by going around calling people irrational and dramatic internet high horse brigaders. Well done

Drink-driving

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