[News] Drink driving - why?

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

Sorry it’s a personal opinion, not a criticism of the sentencing............based on the facts as known I’m not sure the punishment fits the crime.

Personal question..have you ever?

Most people I have met admit to risking it. If you have never got behind the wheel in,any way impaired, then fair play.

 

[dazzer6666]

Personal question..have you ever?

Most people I have met admit to risking it. If you have never got behind the wheel in,any way impaired, then fair play.

Once, when I was 16 on a moped......I was pissed, but still managed to decide to take the backroads to avoid getting nicked. I fell off, and woke up the next morning still in the road, my bike a few yards away (and my helmet still in the pub).

Young, foolish and 35 years ago........

 

[Weststander]

Personal question..have you ever?

Most people I have met admit to risking it. If you have never got behind the wheel in,any way impaired, then fair play.

Most men I know did occasionally or more often did DD in all the era's up to at least the 1980's. People have short memories or won't come clean on a forum.

In the end the greater chance of getting caught, longer bans, the effect on future insurance, effect on careers, and naming in shaming in the press ..... all IMO have dramatically reduced the numbers chancing it.

Many young people now try to get away with drug driving instead. Over time, hopefully, a mass of convictions will deal with this too.

 

[Creaky]

Thankfully drinking and driving has become socially unacceptable and the number of deaths where drink was a factor has fallen over the years.

Speeding however is still very much the norm and anyone convicted of speeding is both unlikely to lose their licence nor be condemned by other drivers.

Yet more than ten times as many people are killed each year in accidents where speed was a factor than in accidents where drink was a factor.

Drive for any distance along a rural road with a 40mph speed limit at or below this speed and you will very quickly have queue of traffic behind you. Drive at 70mph on a motorway and you will constantly be overtaken.

Get caught using a phone whilst driving and you’ll get 6 points on your licence, drive at 40mph in a 30mph zone and you’ll get half the number of points.

Speeding simply isn’t considered a serious offence - why not?

 

[Weststander]

Thankfully drinking and driving has become socially unacceptable and the number of deaths where drink was a factor has fallen over the years.

Speeding however is still very much the norm and anyone convicted of speeding is both unlikely to lose their licence nor be condemned by other drivers.

Yet more than ten times as many people are killed each year in accidents where speed was a factor than in accidents where drink was a factor.

Drive for any distance along a rural road with a 40mph speed limit at or below this speed and you will very quickly have queue of traffic behind you. Drive at 70mph on a motorway and you will constantly be overtaken.

Get caught using a phone whilst driving and you’ll get 6 points on your licence, drive at 40mph in a 30mph zone and you’ll get half the number of points.

Speeding simply isn’t considered a serious offence - why not?

Not to mention using mobiles with hands. The distraction from texting for example, is long enough to wipe out lives.

 

[Creaky]

Not to mention using mobiles with hands. The distraction from texting for example, is long enough to wipe out lives.

Indeed - compare though the 2016 statistics which show there were 32 fatal accidents where the driver was using a mobile phone and the more than 3,000 fatalities in accidents where speed was a factor.

 

[GT49er]

Indeed - compare though the 2016 statistics which show there were 32 fatal accidents where the driver was using a mobile phone and the more than 3,000 fatalities in accidents where speed was a factor.

Yes, speed is a factor but putting it like that is very misleading. If you hit somebody at 5mph, you are unlikely to kill them, even if you're on your mobile and pissed as a newt. Hit them at 60mph, though, even if you're driving within the speed limit and totally sober, you're going to do them a great deal more damage. At the end of the day, speed - even if not illegal or excessive - is a factor in just about every fatality.

And no, so as not to upset anybody, I'm not suggesting it's OK to drive at 5mph when pissed and on your phone.............

 

[Fungus]

I will admit that, as a younger man, I used to take this stupid risk a lot.

I stopped when, one night, I got totally smashed, kerbed a wheel and drove home with sparks flying off my wheel rims and making a massive racket for about 5 miles. I left a groove in the road ffs.

In the morning I realised what I'd done. Never drank and drove again. I could have killed myself and Christ knows who else.

I think you might be on to something there. Grooves in the road? Leading right to your front door? Needs a bit of developing and you've got your own private tramway!

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

And no, so as not to upset anybody, I'm not suggesting it's OK to drive at 5mph when pissed and on your phone.............

It is a sad day when we (I had to do it today) have to spell out the bleeding obvious to preclude a numpty writing a brainbollox load of old cockwangle in reply to a perfectly rasonable and coherent post.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Bexhill teacher Louise Willard inadvertently recorded her own drink driver and was convicted today. Driving at up to 50mph in residential streets, whilst 3 times over the limit, her actions beggar belief. She could have very easily snuffed out the lives of innocent others.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-sussex-43913537/dashcam-footage-shows-drink-driver-s-journey

Very scary video, she should be banned from driving for ever though.

 

[GT49er]

Personal question..have you ever?

Most people I have met admit to risking it. If you have never got behind the wheel in,any way impaired, then fair play.

Most men I know did occasionally or more often did DD in all the era's up to at least the 1980's. People have short memories or won't come clean on a forum.

In the end the greater chance of getting caught, longer bans, the effect on future insurance, effect on careers, and naming in shaming in the press ..... all IMO have dramatically reduced the numbers chancing it.

I think that back in the day - 70s, 80s, maybe even the 90s - people were more casual or relaxed about it. Driving when drunk was illegal - and not a good thing to do of course - but I think we were much more likely to, how shall we put it, sail a bit close to the wind.
The other difference, of course, was when we drank. We went to the pub, which shut at 10:30 or 11. Off sales weren't cheap back then - no massive booze bargains in the supermarkets - so there was much less 'after hours' drinking after the pub shut. So we just went home, went to bed - and 'slept it off'. Unless you had a raging hangover (in which case you probably stayed in bed) you didn't even consider the possibility of being illegal the next day.

 

[BN9 BHA]

No, they would. With alcoholism running at about 8-9% in the uk you're looking at just under a million regular DD riskers.

Do you realise what size the prison estate would have to be to get them in?

Besides, you'd be jailing a lot of Doctors, Lawyers and other professionals who would benefit from help rather than stir.

Sorry I can't provide a link, but a police force ( Yorksire I think ) posted a video on Twitter this week.
The video was a Range Rover driver sticking 2 fingers up to a speed camera, he was charged because he had some sort of device that blocked speed cameras.

Jail sentence - 8 months.

Now in my opinion the video of the drink driver on this thread is far,far worse.

 

[dazzer6666]

Sorry I can't provide a link, but a police force ( Yorksire I think ) posted a video on Twitter this week.
The video was a Range Rover driver sticking 2 fingers up to a speed camera, he was charged because he had some sort of device that blocked speed cameras.

Jail sentence - 8 months.

Now in my opinion the video of the drink driver on this thread is far,far worse.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/audio-video/range-rover-driver-jailed-swearing-speed-cameras/

Jailed for perverting the course of justice, not speeding..........

 

[Official Old Man]

Past my test in '74 and for many years going down the pub in the car was a regular thing. Driving out to country pubs for an afternoon session was a norm on a hot day. Different times.
The end of season drinks this year will cost me a fortune as it's a 20 mile taxi ride home, same as it was last season. Sometimes I may have a half if picking up a takeaway and even then it is the lowest strength on tap.

 

[Weststander]

I think that back in the day - 70s, 80s, maybe even the 90s - people were more casual or relaxed about it. Driving when drunk was illegal - and not a good thing to do of course - but I think we were much more likely to, how shall we put it, sail a bit close to the wind.
The other difference, of course, was when we drank. We went to the pub, which shut at 10:30 or 11. Off sales weren't cheap back then - no massive booze bargains in the supermarkets - so there was much less 'after hours' drinking after the pub shut. So we just went home, went to bed - and 'slept it off'. Unless you had a raging hangover (in which case you probably stayed in bed) you didn't even consider the possibility of being illegal the next day.

As you say, tons of people drunk drive home late at night after pubing or clubbing. The 'designated driver' often still got drunk, it was their call and turn to take the risk. I know older people who were stopped by local bobbies in the 60's and 70's whilst over the limit, who were simply told to park the car up and collect it the next day. Getting caught the next day was rare, but I remember a builder I knew got done for that in about 1988.

 

[BN9 BHA]

https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/audio-video/range-rover-driver-jailed-swearing-speed-cameras/

Jailed for perverting the course of justice, not speeding..........

Thanks for providing the link to the story.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

As you say, tons of people drunk drive home late at night after pubing or clubbing. The 'designated driver' often still got drunk, it was their call and turn to take the risk. I know older people who were stopped by local bobbies in the 60's and 70's whilst over the limit, who were simply told to park the car up and collect it the next day. Getting caught the next day was rare, but I remember a builder I knew got done for that in about 1988.

I like the sound of pubing.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

I think you might be on to something there. Grooves in the road? Leading right to your front door? Needs a bit of developing and you've got your own private tramway!

If plod had been switched on they could have tracked me from The Plough, Billericay, to Hutton by the bits of tyre and road damage.

What a muppet. I was so ashamed.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

Most men I know did occasionally or more often did DD in all the era's up to at least the 1980's. People have short memories or won't come clean on a forum.

In the end the greater chance of getting caught, longer bans, the effect on future insurance, effect on careers, and naming in shaming in the press ..... all IMO have dramatically reduced the numbers chancing it.

Many young people now try to get away with drug driving instead. Over time, hopefully, a mass of convictions will deal with this too.

Oh, I agree. It’s ****ing stupid and dangerous but I think we can see that a LOT of people, especially blokes have broken this particular law at least once.

There’s a difference though. We weren’t caught. She has been and that’s her teaching career gone, her insurance through the roof, her relationships damaged a massive fine and a criminal record forever. Perhaps she’s suffered enough the silly cow. I think jail time is liable to push many, like her, to suicide.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Journey of a drink driver released by Sussex Police. Terrifying, note some of the speeds .