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Drink driving question

  • 06-03-2012 2:26am
    #1
    idunnoshur
    Closed Accounts Posts: 185 ✭✭


    Alright lads, this evening one of my friends who's a notorious bull****ter told me that over the weekend he was pulled by the guards while he was driving along. He says that the guard breathalysed him and told him he was clear and told him to drive on. My friend then said he opened a can in front of the guard and had a few sups and put the can back down, he says he got breathalysed again and passed and the guard gave him a big lecture and told him to **** off out if his sight.

    I think this story is absolute **** but would it be illegal to drink while in control of a vehicle but not over the limit?I'm hoping that it is so I can catch him out on one of his stories.

    Thanks


Comments

  • #2
    TheChizler
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,474 ✭✭✭TheChizler


    idunnoshur wrote: »
    Alright lads, this evening one of my friends who's a notorious bull****ter told me that over the weekend he was pulled by the guards while he was driving along. He says that the guard breathalysed him and told him he was clear and told him to drive on. My friend then said he opened a can in front of the guard and had a few sups and put the can back down, he says he got breathalysed again and passed and the guard gave him a big lecture and told him to **** off out if his sight.

    I think this story is absolute **** but would it be illegal to drink while in control of a vehicle but not over the limit?I'm hoping that it is so I can catch him out on one of his stories.

    Thanks
    I know of someone who recently got done for both drink driving AND drinking while driving so yeah you can definitely get caught for it. Not sure what it's like on conviction though.


  • #3
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    idunnoshur wrote: »
    Alright lads, this evening one of my friends who's a notorious bull****ter told me that over the weekend he was pulled by the guards while he was driving along. He says that the guard breathalysed him and told him he was clear and told him to drive on. My friend then said he opened a can in front of the guard and had a few sups and put the can back down, he says he got breathalysed again and passed and the guard gave him a big lecture and told him to **** off out if his sight.

    I think this story is absolute **** but would it be illegal to drink while in control of a vehicle but not over the limit?I'm hoping that it is so I can catch him out on one of his stories.

    Thanks

    You answered your own question there.


  • #4
    idunnoshur
    Closed Accounts Posts: 185 ✭✭idunnoshur


    stankratz wrote: »
    You answered your own question there.

    I know but I'd like to show him some proof and try and get him to stop with all of these stupid lies.


  • #5
    patwicklow
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,937 ✭✭✭patwicklow


    Now to think if you were driving any car, and for a guard to see you to drink out of a can of beer while in charge of a car would let you go like that, in the first place to do that you would have to be drunk, so i hope they did nick your make.


  • #6
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,714 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    So far as I know, simply taking a drink while in charge of a car is not an offence. It's an offence to exceed the blood/alcohol limits, or to be under the influence of drink to such an extent as to be incapable of properly controlling the vehicle.

    I wouldn't do what your friend claims he did because (a) it's a dickish thing to do, and (b) it might piss the guard off to the point where he would look around for something else to get you on. But it's not, in itself, an offence as far as i can see.


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  • #7
    Marcusm
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,448 ✭✭✭✭Marcusm


    idunnoshur wrote: »
    Alright lads, this evening one of my friends who's a notorious bull****ter told me that over the weekend he was pulled by the guards while he was driving along. He says that the guard breathalysed him and told him he was clear and told him to drive on. My friend then said he opened a can in front of the guard and had a few sups and put the can back down, he says he got breathalysed again and passed and the guard gave him a big lecture and told him to **** off out if his sight.

    I think this story is absolute **** but would it be illegal to drink while in control of a vehicle but not over the limit?I'm hoping that it is so I can catch him out on one of his stories.

    Thanks
    Your friend is either a bullsh1tter or should be detained under the Mental Health Act as he clearly is a danger to himself!!!


  • #8
    BrianD
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,221 ✭✭✭BrianD


    I recall being stuck behind a car on the Westlink and the guy in front of me pulls a can of beer out of his cupholder and has a swig as if it was a coffee.

    The person in the OP would not be over the limit after two swigs. The Garda would know that too. Not sure why he would have breath tested him a second time. Is there not a validity issue with a test immediately after consumption?


  • #9
    jargon buster
    Registered Users Posts: 267 ✭✭jargon buster


    Is there not a validity issue with a test immediately after consumption?
    Police would normally wait 15 minutes from the time you admitted to the last drink, this allows any alcohol in the mouth to disipate and not give a false positive.

    I sense the guy in the op is indeed full of ****.


  • #10
    MagicSean
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,897 ✭✭✭MagicSean


    BrianD wrote: »
    I recall being stuck behind a car on the Westlink and the guy in front of me pulls a can of beer out of his cupholder and has a swig as if it was a coffee.

    The person in the OP would not be over the limit after two swigs. The Garda would know that too. Not sure why he would have breath tested him a second time. Is there not a validity issue with a test immediately after consumption?

    The roadside test is only an aid to the Garda. The evidential breath test at the station requires nil by mouth for 20 minutes before the test.


  • #11
    idunnoshur
    Closed Accounts Posts: 185 ✭✭idunnoshur


    Firstly sorry for the delay in replying, I've had other things on my mind.
    Peregrinus wrote: »
    It's an offence to exceed the blood/alcohol limits, or to be under the influence of drink to such an extent as to be incapable of properly controlling the vehicle.

    What do you mean by the part in bold? Surely the point of blood alcohol limits is that if you're under the limit you can drive legally?
    jargon buster wrote: »
    Police would normally wait 15 minutes from the time you admitted to the last drink, this allows any alcohol in the mouth to disipate and not give a false positive.

    I sense the guy in the op is indeed full of ****.

    I wasn't aware of that, thanks. I think you're right about him lying, he wouldn't talk about the incident at all today in college.
    MagicSean wrote: »
    The roadside test is only an aid to the Garda. The evidential breath test at the station requires nil by mouth for 20 minutes before the test.

    What do you mean by "nil by mouth for 20 minutes before the test"?


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  • #12
    tuxy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,983 ✭✭✭✭tuxy


    idunnoshur wrote: »


    What do you mean by "nil by mouth for 20 minutes before the test"?

    The guard will observe the person for 20 minutes before administering the breath test. This is to ensure the person does not consume something that may effect the reading on the machine.


  • #13
    Zambia
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,333 ✭✭✭Zambia


    Its a lie. If you take a mouthful of alcohol then blow into a pbt the reading would be very high.


  • #14
    idunnoshur
    Closed Accounts Posts: 185 ✭✭idunnoshur


    Zambia wrote: »
    Its a lie if you take a mouthful of alcohol then blow into a pbt the reading would be very high.

    I disagree, wouldn't alcohol be volatile enough to evaporate while it's in ones mouth hence the breathalyzer would read higher?


  • #15
    Zambia
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,333 ✭✭✭Zambia


    I was missing a full stop. Sorry read it again.


  • #16
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,714 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    Peregrinus wrote: »
    So far as I know, simply taking a drink while in charge of a car is not an offence. It's an offence to exceed the blood/alcohol limits, or to be under the influence of drink to such an extent as to be incapable of properly controlling the vehicle.
    idunnoshur wrote: »
    What do you mean by the part in bold? Surely the point of blood alcohol limits is that if you're under the limit you can drive legally?
    Not necessarily, no.

    Driving while incapable is the older offence; it was on the books at a time when there wasn’t the technology, or resources, to conduct routine blood/breath/urine tests. A conviction required evidence both that you had drink taken (smell on your breath, empties in the car, evidence of witnesses) and that you were incapable of proper control (driving erratically, slurred speech when interviewed, unable to walk along a straight line) plus a willingness on the part of the court to infer that your physical impairment was the result of the amount of drink you had taken.

    Then along came technology, and the law was amended to create a new offence, driving while having in excess of a certain concentration of alcohol in your blood. Given a robust testing system, this is much easier to prove, and all or nearly all drink-driving convictions nowadays are for this offence.

    But both offences remain on the books, and you can be prosecuted for either. In a situation in which, for whatever reason, a blood/alcohol test isn’t done in time, the guards can still prosecute you for driving while incapable, if they can prove that you had drink taken, and that you were incapable of properly controlling your vehicle. I don’t know how often this happens.

    In theory, even if there was a blood test, and you were under the limit, they could still prosecute you for driving while incapable. But the blood/alcohol limit is so low that, if you are under it, it’s unlikely that you would exhibit the kind of gross incapacity that would be needed to get a conviction - weaving all over the road, unable to walk in a straight line, slurred speech, etc. (You might have a slower reaction time, but how are the guards going to prove that?) I suppose it might happen if you had an abnormally low tolerance for alcohol.


  • #17
    Victor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 78,494 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    idunnoshur wrote: »
    What do you mean by the part in bold? Surely the point of blood alcohol limits is that if you're under the limit you can drive legally?
    While most people will be sober or relatively sober (most would still be more relaxed than normal and indeed slightly impaired) if they are under the limits, that is not the case with everyone. Some people might have a particular intolerance to alcohol (physiological condition or simply no tolerance for alcohol) or imagine someone on strong medication and is under medical instruction to avoid alcohol, who has a drink which makes the effect of the medication adverse or negligible (putting the person into a withdrawal type state), rendering the person unsafe to drive.

    The limits can't account for such scenarios, so there is a catch all provision.
    Peregrinus wrote: »
    it’s unlikely that you would exhibit the kind of gross incapacity that would be needed to get a conviction - weaving all over the road, unable to walk in a straight line, slurred speech, etc. (You might have a slower reaction time, but how are the guards going to prove that?)
    There is a provision in the 2010 act for the minister to specify additional types of tests. One such test may be a blink test - we blink much more slowly when intoxicated.


  • #18
    idunnoshur
    Closed Accounts Posts: 185 ✭✭idunnoshur


    Thanks for all of the replies but could someone give me a definitive answer about drinking while in control of a vehicle?


  • #19
    jargon buster
    Registered Users Posts: 267 ✭✭jargon buster


    I will give you some advice, stop wasting time talking to a half-wit bull****ter.

    You have already said he has dropped it, he was lying, leave him alone.

    Unless you want the information for another reason that is?
    http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/home.html
    You will find the information you want in there.


  • #20
    ResearchWill
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,111 ✭✭✭ResearchWill


    idunnoshur wrote: »
    Thanks for all of the replies but could someone give me a definitive answer about drinking while in control of a vehicle?

    It's simple there are two offences the first is driving a MPV while intoxicated so as to be incapable of havving proper control. The second and more usual is to be over certin limits.

    In the first AGS must prove intoxication that is speach slurped etc and also the inability to have proper control of a MPV. The second offence once AGS prove a certain amount of drink in system you then you are guilty of an offence.


  • #21
    Zambia
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,333 ✭✭✭Zambia


    If you want to come to Victoria it is an offence here. To drink alcohol while driving.


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  • #22
    Milk & Honey
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,950 ✭✭✭Milk & Honey


    idunnoshur wrote: »
    Thanks for all of the replies but could someone give me a definitive answer about drinking while in control of a vehicle?

    The only possibility would be driving without due care and attention. This would apply whatever type of drink was being consumed. Tea, coffee, mineral water etc.

    I would think that the Guard was hoping that the mouth alcohol would produce a fail on the second test. Then the driver could have been arrested and kept for an hour or two while the test was being carried out.


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