Drinkin Driving Hotline?

Sangre

Basically wondering if there is anyway you can report suspected drink drivers, tried the Garda Confidential Hotline but it just said leave a message or dial 999 if an emergency. So I just rang the local garda station and reported it with car make and registration.

Basically my friend about 12 was being served in the chipper and before he got his order a guy in a suit started ranting at him saying he should be f'ing polite and say please and thank you and all that bollox, I was just outside rolling my eyes at the drunk hoping my friend would ignore him, which he did. (incidently the chipper guy butted in and said he always says thank you ). Anyway we go to sit on a wall and we see this guy go off and start eating his chips in his car and we were none too impressed. So we decided to report him before he finished and left because if he is sober or just waiting for a taxi a quick breathalyser wouldn't do him any harm!

So, in conclusion, any better way of reporting this?

magpie

Yes, I find drunks tend to wear suits and insist on proper decorum being observed in chip shops. Good work on clearing society of this scourge.

Talliesin

I've always phoned the local garda station, though there is talk of setting up a hotline for exactly this.

Sangre

magpie wrote:

Yes, I find drunks tend to wear suits and insist on proper decorum being observed in chip shops. Good work on clearing society of this scourge.

Well it was 12 o clock at night so he obviously he went to the pub for a few after work and then the chipper.
Try reading the post next before trying to sound like a smart ass.

magpie

Well it was 12 o clock at night so he obviously he went to the pub for a few after work and then the chipper

Obviously. Send him down. Definitely not working late or driving back from a meeting down the country then. I'll bet a couple of pissed students trying to shop him to the guards for asking them to be polite really made his day.

whippet

Dial 1890 205805 .. it's the TrafficWatch number, you will be connected to the local station.

magpie

Dial 1890 205805 .. it's the TrafficWatch number, you will be connected to the local station.

Do you have a number for the local Gauleiter to report suspicious foreigners too?

Stephen

Put the handbag away.

calhob_ie

If he killed your friend/fiance/mother driving on the wrong side of the road I'm sure you'd wish somebody had phoned the guards to prevent him.

Moron.

magpie

If he killed your friend/fiance/mother driving on the wrong side of the road I'm sure you'd wish somebody had phoned the guards to prevent him.

Take it easy there Maude Flanders. You're assuming he was actually drunk based on the following damning evidence:

He was in a chip shop at 12.00.

Macy

magpie wrote:

Take it easy there Maude Flanders. You're assuming he was actually drunk based on the following damning evidence:

He was in a chip shop at 12.00.

Being agressive. If he hasn't then he would've passed the breath test anyway, so it would've just been an inconvenience for being ignorant.

toiletduck

magpie wrote:

Take it easy there Maude Flanders. You're assuming he was actually drunk based on the following damning evidence:

He was in a chip shop at 12.00.

oh, i've heard enough, HANG HIM!

magpie

Being agressive

It seems like the guy's main crimes were 1) wearing a suit and 2) asking the persons involved to be polite

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we don't live in some distopian Famous Five / Informer state where the guards investigate people based on the suspicions of chip-shop patrons at midnight.

delly

I've regularly reported DUI drivers while out on the road, and i mean real obvious ones driving at 40km/h and crossing the white line and back again. I've dialled 999 and they always are keen to take details and respond.

My cousin who's a rozzer has always told me that if you need something looked at by a patrol straight away your better off ringing 999, whereas ringing the station should only be for matters that are not time dependent.

Talliesin

magpie wrote:

Take it easy there Maude Flanders. You're assuming he was actually drunk based on the following damning evidence:

He was in a chip shop at 12.00.

I thought he was assuming he was drunk based on his being in close proximity to the person while he was clearly drunk :rolleyes:

magpie

I thought he was assuming he was drunk based on his being in close proximity to the person while he was clearly drunk

That'll be why he said

So we decided to report him before he finished and left because if he is sober.... a quick breathalyser wouldn't do him any harm

Doesn't sound like he was 'clearly drunk' to me given that he's expressed doubt himself.

My turn to roll the eyes. :rolleyes:

Stephen

delly wrote:

My cousin who's a rozzer has always told me that if you need something looked at by a patrol straight away your better off ringing 999, whereas ringing the station should only be for matters that are not time dependent.

A friend of mine did that to report the noisy bastards next door and got told off for using an emergency number for something that was not an emergency.

delly

Stephen wrote:

A friend of mine did that to report the noisy bastards next door and got told off for using an emergency number for something that was not an emergency.

Well drink driving would put peoples lives at risk there and then, whereas noisy neighbours is more of a domestic type noise pollution problem.

Sangre

And why did you assume I was drinking? We weren't drinking but stopped at the chipper on the way home.

He didn't say be polite he told him to say fúcking please and thank you and not be ignorant etc., Even the guy working behind the counter said something to try and defuse the situation.

What is your problem with this Magpie, do you think I did something wrong?
Myself and my 2 other friends believed him to be drunk and its not very hard to tell when someone has even had a few pints i.e. over the limit.

Anyway, there are no offices nearby, just pubs.

mike65

Sangre wrote:

Basically my friend about 12 was being served in the chipper and before he got his order a guy in a suit started ranting at him saying he should be f'ing polite and say please and thank you and all that bollox, I was just outside rolling my eyes at the drunk hoping my friend would ignore him, which he did. (incidently the chipper guy butted in and said he always says thank you ). Anyway we go to sit on a wall and we see this guy go off and start eating his chips in his car and we were none too impressed. So we decided to report him before he finished and left because if he is sober or just waiting for a taxi a quick breathalyser wouldn't do him any harm!

:rolleyes:

For petes sake Sangre are you this vindictive with everyone who "dissis" you or a friend? You have NO evidence to suggest the man was drunk beyond him being a bit of a tool.

You were none too impressed with him and I'm none to impressed with you!

Sangre wrote:

Well it was 12 o clock at night so he obviously he went to the pub for a few after work and then the chipper. Try reading the post next before trying to sound like a smart ass.

From your "evidence" Magpie could no more make an inference that the man was drunk than you could.

The next time you "diss" a fellow boards member in such a fashion on my watch you'll be browsing from the sidelines for a week.

Mike.

Sangre

So you can't tell if someone was drunk?

Yeah, I'll try to refrain from such cutting remarks as 'smart ass' :rolleyes:

Curran

Better safe than sorry IMO!

I lost a friend to a drunk driver in the US when she was over on a scholarship!
The guy was 7 times over the limit and had 4 drink driving convictions against him already and apprentantly he was a well to do business man! He hit and run and couldnt remember crashing his car half and hour later!

Now dont get me wrong im not sayin just cos this man had a suit on in the chipper that he's the same type of guy!

If i had been same situation....i woulda laughed him off until i seen him getting into a CAR!
Like it was said.....it wouldnt do the chap any harm if he was breathalysed!

BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY !!!!!
You never know who the next drunk driver is going to hit!

RIP - Tracy (aka Pick 'n' Mix)

Sangre

I think people are focusing on this suit bit too much, basically after I made the call I realised and commented to my friends he was in a suit, I figured he must have had a few after work. It didn't play any part in my decision to call the gaurds.

Im actually slightly disappointed at the replies here, there wasn't any doubt in my mind he was over the limit but then again, maybe he has a speech impediment that causes him too talk like a drunk. Well if having him get a breathalyser saves a few lives well I think I'll be ok with the replies here.

Oh and Mike65 I told him not be a smartass and didn't actually call him one, acted the post not the poster kind of thing. Something wrong with that?

BrianD3

I don't see why people have such a problem with the original post. There's a very high probability that the guy was drunk. Anyone who's ever been in a pub, chipper or just walking down the street on a Saturday night will recognise the sort of behaviour described. The incident could easily have ended in a brawl but instead it ended with an angry, drunk moron getting into his car and driving off.

mike65

Sangre wrote:

So you can't tell if someone was drunk?

You did'nt describe someone as being drunk. Rather you said some guy was argumentative and you took it that he was drunk. In other words you made an assumption, now maybe you had more evidence - smelled of booze, slurred speech, slightly wandering thought process, could'nt walk straight etc but if so you forgot to mention it in the opening post. I'd need slightly more eveidence than you supply to phone the old bill.
[/quote]

Sangre wrote:

Yeah, I'll try to refrain from such cutting remarks as 'smart ass' :rolleyes:

Smart ass may not be cutting edge but if aimed with hostility at another boards member then I take it seriously.

Mike.

magpie

Its ok, I am a smart-arse. I'm just questioning the validity of the reasons why you wanted to shop this guy to the guards, which from the evidence initially presented seemed to have more to do with you taking a dislike to him than him being over the limit. However, if as you've subsequently said he was slurring his speech and stumbling around the place, then fair enough. Pesky suits.