Have you ever had a Drink and then Drive?

Ernie Ball

A helpful link:

http://www.roadatvg.org.uk/DrinkDrive.htm

On that page you'll find another link to the following chart:



The weights are in pounds. A unit of beer is 12oz., not 20. What they are calling .01% is what we call 10mg and so on. Should give you an idea. That said, I would advise all to follow the guidelines in my first link, e.g., one pint = no driving for 4 hours.

Seth Brundle

I can honestly say that I have done it numerous times - all many many years ago.
Tbh, I possibly had a bit of a drink problem at the time (~2 year period where I drank 4 or 5 pints every night and drove home and at weekends I really got hammered with about 10 pints followed by about 10 whiskeys).
It was down the country and was 100% acceptable. I even drank with on-duty gardai.

Nowadays Im not so stupid and have far more responsibilities. If on the rare occasion I get out I always drink Becks non-alcohol!

Hotblack Desiato

28064212 wrote:

Thirdly, there's the fact that 80mg is an arbitrary figure.

Speed limits are arbitrary figures too. When a speed limit is lower than can be justified on safety grounds, it is usually ignored. I wouldn't like to see the drink-drive limit go the same way.

Enforce the existing law first (and enforce it strongly, random checks etc.)
IF we still have a problem then with alcohol involvement in accidents, then and only then consider reducing it further.

Advocating very low limits is the easy way out. Better to get the public to respect the existing law. Most people convicted of drink-driving are two to three times over the present limit. If the limit is reduced they'll just continue to completely ignore it (as long as the chances of getting caught remain low).

Balfa

To be honest, i'll sometimes have a glass of orange juice with my cereal before heading out the door.

Seriously though, in the poll does NO mean not a drop of intoxicating substances has touched me, or does it mean over the limit?

When we go to restaurants, my wife often gets a cocktail, and i'll taste it, but that hardly counts. I recently had a delicious Jack Daniels Burger at TGI Fridays, too! I voted no.

freewing

never , never , never . i drive for a living and i also have a motor cycle and just wont take the chance . i also think there should be a zero limit it would just remove the temptation

Macy

The report was about having any drink and driving. Total misrepresentation, and to hear them try and justify that misrepresentation on George Hook last night was embarrassing.

So if you had a shandy, or a bottle of beer, you would be counted in the 40% figure, despite the way they've tried to make out that it's people drunken driving.

For the record, I'd have a couple of shandy's and drive.

All this talk about reducing the limit is pointless until people respect the current laws. As has been said, most caught are multiples of the current limit, so get that down and then maybe look at it....

Borzoi

jhegarty wrote:

here is the catch , from what I understand they consider any amount of drink (even half a pint) to be drinking and driving....

Well, I'd certainly be one of the guilty ones then :rolleyes:

jlang

If I'm driving, I'll often have one pint in the pub, followed by orange juice or coke or water until I want to go home. Or if I'm out for dinner, one glass of wine. None of my friends (in Dublin) would either. But never ever more than that when driving so I'm not going to enter the poll because it would add to the 'drinkers' line and the poll would be skewed towards irresponsibility.

jlang

To be honest, with the bias of the published poll towards sensationalism, I'm surprised it was only 40%.

Dr. Dre

kbannon wrote:

I can honestly say that I have done it numerous times - all many many years ago.
Tbh, I possibly had a bit of a drink problem at the time (~2 year period where I drank 4 or 5 pints every night and drove home and at weekends I really got hammered with about 10 pints followed by about 10 whiskeys).
It was down the country and was 100% acceptable.

Ditto, 'cept I drank twice as much. Not a good time.
Haven't gotten behind the wheel with a drink in about 4 years - and never will again.

stratos

This is kinda steered towards the non drinkers, noone gonna say yea sure all the time, hey i'm drunk right now.
Though I may be proved wrong.

Dilbert75

I actually took part in that survey and, if I remember correctly, the question was whether I had ever driven immediately after having consumed alcohol. I answered yes, I had. I have driven to the takeaway after having a mouthful of wine. Had they asked if I'd ever driven when I suspected I was over the legal limit, I would have answered no, never, not even a chance.

Biased towards sensationalism? Agreed. As always, its about how you phrase the question.

Hotblack Desiato

jlang wrote:

To be honest, with the bias of the published poll towards sensationalism, I'm surprised it was only 40%.

And most of the other 60% are lying given the stupid wording of the survey question.

The question should have been "Do you ever drive when possibly over the limit?" There's no use in finding out how many people took a stupid chance ten years ago but would never do it again, or how many people take half a shandy then drink 7-Up the rest of the night.

Also, very few people taking a survey will give an answer they know is not what the surveyor wants to hear...

Rippy

Yeah, been there done that in various states of intoxication. Not for a few years now though. Thank God no-one was ever hurt , including myself. Worst was on camping holiday in very rural Scotland. Sank God knows how many pints in local hostelry, managed to get car stuck in roadside mud on way back. Towed out by equally pi**sed local, nudged the back of his truck, clipped gatepost turning into field , then to cap it all ran over me own tent!
Company car too so had to get it repaired quickly before I went back to work. Cost a bit! Put me on the road to sobreity.....

NUTLEY BOY

Never drink and drive for three reasons ;

1 It kills people.

2. It is stupid.

3. Even if you are within the limit you will be crucified if you are in an accident for which you my not have been at fault. They ask in court if you had a drink and cut you off before explain that you did but were inside the limit. It is an old trick but it works. It is even worse if you are a young driver. If you want to gargle your head off leave the car behind and you make no mistake.

HashSlinging

Didnt drink but smoked some home grown at a gig once, it was stronger than I ever expected. Car was in a multi story so I had to get out of there first, then drive home binned while having a major para attack. 30mph in a 60mph zone paranoid.

HashSlinging

nutly boy your dead right, but on the way to becoming a man, you will do some really stupid things that you'll regret in your life. Drinking and driving might be one.

seamus

HashSlinging wrote:

nutly boy your dead right, but on the way to becoming a man, you will do some really stupid things that you'll regret in your life. Drinking and driving might be one.

Every mistake you make always sounds like an OK idea at the time, regardless of the warnings you've received. All you can hope is that nobody dies by your mistakes.

ambro25

seamus wrote:

Every mistake you make always sounds like an OK idea at the time, regardless of the warnings you've received. All you can hope is that nobody dies by your mistakes.

Agree 110%.

Done it once in 17 years, but properly, back in FR (one of my life's mottos - if you gonna do something, do it right or don't do it at all)

Drove home 15 miles (13 of which being a 6-lane'd motorway) with two bottles of Champagne's finest in me, at 02:30/03:00 AM. Numerous times, could have sworn I was rigidly sticking to my (slow) lane with no probs, 'til I felt the car bumping on grass (far right of m'way) or realised the central reservation barrier was mere inches from my door (far left of m'way) :eek:

I swore blind the next morning never to do that again - and have never done it again. I would never in a million years condone/defend/fgind extenuating circumstances for anyone done for it (was myself a victim of a drunk driver when a kid), but seamus summed it pretty well.

Gurgle

After 1 pint or a glass of wine with sunday dinner, I'll drive the car. Never more than that, certainly never drunk.

On a few occasions in my younger and stupider days I've driven the bike home when I was too drunk to walk.