drink/driving

[Simple Jack]

Yeah look clearly I'm talking about driving whilst having drunk enough to impair your reflexes and driving skills.

Not gonna bother with this thread anymore, it is pretty clear vealesy is either trolling hard or deluded. Gasometer last couple of posts, pretty much all that needs to be said about drink drivers.

But as far as I can tell vealesy isn't talking about driving whilst having drunk enough to impair your reflexes. He's talking about the ridiculous situation of the culpability of a driving incident increasing exponentially based on an arbitrary value which only provides an indication about an acceptable level of diminished driving ability.

Depending on a whole heap of other factors you could be .0499/.0500 and not impaired to the base level that is determined 'acceptable' or .0499/.0500 and impaired beyond that level.

Under the current system:
Not past the acceptable level at .0500=Much harsher penalties.
Past the acceptable level at .0499=Removal of the extra 'drink driving' penalties.

It is the same as many other situations in Victoria, arbitrary values make poor (albeit the best we have) measures of the legality of an action. However, strictly enforcing them (mandatory sentencing, introduced in Victoria in 2001), and not being able to take into account any mitigating circumstances is just idiotic.

 

[rickyp]

I honestly don't know why it isn't a flat 0 limit whilst driving.

 

[Upgrayedd]

I honestly don't know why it isn't a flat 0 limit whilst driving.

Hands free kits/Drugs/Ipods/Phones/Laptops/food/coversations/less then 8 hours of sleep should also be banned via drivers, ive known people who really have trouble having a conversation to people while maintaining a proper line and 100% control on the road while chatting to people

Anyways, 7 beers in 2 hours W food, Anything else i will blow over 0.05 i can usually sink about 3 an hour within the first 2 hours and be borderline over the limit if i've had 10+ over 4-5 hours i wont even consider

1-2 is ok, I consider phones/ipods worse since your taking your eyes of the wheel and focusing on something else, if i've been drinking 3-4 beers i have never just gone and text people or take a phone call which is probably more dangerous then a fraction of a second of impared reaction

I once worked 12 hours straight and 4 hours sleep the night before had 2 beers and went to drive home, pulled over and slept in my car (was 3am) since i was absolutly struggling, got a knock on the window from the cops because i was slightly on the emergency lane and told me i was 10 minutes away from a carpark. absolute w***ers.

 

[Doss]

I dodged a bullet when I was 20 and still on my Ps. Had a decently big night on Good Friday eve at a friend's house, and then drove the next morning. As luck had it, I got stopped and tested around 9.30am on Good Friday, and I'm pretty sure that between say 7pm the night before and 2am that morning, I had drunk about 8 beers, a couple glasses of red and at least one shot of Johnnie Black.

Somehow- and to this day I'm not sure how- I was okay. I still have a suspicion that perhaps I did blow something small (remembering Ps have a limit of .00), but that the cop went easy on me. But then it was also Good Friday, and if you believe the stuff they say publicly about having zero tolerance over Easter...so who knows.

Since then, I have been pretty paranoid about it. It's not worth the risk, primarily in terms of the risk drunk drivers pose to others, but also in terms of the disruption it causes to your life.

 

[LANGFORDandSON]

I can highly recommend the ignore button in this situation

Good point, problem is people will keep quoting him so I will see it anyway.

Besides, where am I going to get my daily dose of "edginess" from?

 

[dales.girl38]

Good point, problem is people will keep quoting him so I will see it anyway.

Besides, where am I going to get my daily dose of "edginess" from?

Nah, you don't see what people are quoting, but it sometimes makes it a bit confusing when you see people seemingly talking to themselves or responding to nothing

That is true.

 

[vealesy]

Good point, problem is people will keep quoting him so I will see it anyway.

Besides, where am I going to get my daily dose of "edginess" from?

You need to meet some more people if im that interesting to you.

Im not edgy or a badass. Just sharing regular person experiences.

 

[Gasometer]

I dodged a bullet when I was 20 and still on my Ps. Had a decently big night on Good Friday eve at a friend's house, and then drove the next morning. As luck had it, I got stopped and tested around 9.30am on Good Friday, and I'm pretty sure that between say 7pm the night before and 2am that morning, I had drunk about 8 beers, a couple glasses of red and at least one shot of Johnnie Black.

Somehow- and to this day I'm not sure how- I was okay. I still have a suspicion that perhaps I did blow something small (remembering Ps have a limit of .00), but that the cop went easy on me. But then it was also Good Friday, and if you believe the stuff they say publicly about having zero tolerance over Easter...so who knows.

Since then, I have been pretty paranoid about it. It's not worth the risk, primarily in terms of the risk drunk drivers pose to others, but also in terms of the disruption it causes to your life.

Yes I loathed the morning after when on my P's....knowing/guessing when is it back to .00 was such a pain.

 

[Doss]

Yes I loathed the morning after when on my P's....knowing/guessing when is it back to .00 was such a pain.

I still remember it all quite clearly. I 'felt fine'. I turned onto Camberwell Road after dropping my friend off, and a copper was parked horizontally across the road- went into the biggest panic internally (while trying to be calm externally) and started making plans on how I'd get by without my car for however long I would lose my licence for.

When the cop said "righto, have a good day", I was so surprised initially that I even said something along the lines of "oh I'm alright am I?"

A little embarrassing.

 

[Gasometer]

I still remember it all quite clearly. I 'felt fine'. I turned onto Camberwell Road after dropping my friend off, and a copper was parked horizontally across the road- went into the biggest panic internally (while trying to be calm externally) and started making plans on how I'd get by without my car for however long I would lose my licence for.

When the cop said "righto, have a good day", I was so surprised initially that I even said something along the lines of "oh I'm alright am I?"

A little embarrassing.

I was not on P's but had a big night on Bundy and the Cop had pulled up at a T section on this country road. I remember him walking away and looking twice at the breatho. I think he thought he wasnt going to find anything on a Sunday morning at 9am in the middle of nowhere...anyway, must have been fine and off I drove but it made me realise that it can linger around for some hours.

Usually its combined with a really late night so the tiredness, hangover and some left in the system dont make me drive very well. Typically wait for midday now.

 

[Simple Jack]

Yes I loathed the morning after when on my P's....knowing/guessing when is it back to .00 was such a pain.

I bought myself one of those DIY breatho's for that exact reason.

I never got it serviced so it was probably wildly inaccurate but it certainly helped my piece of mind.

 

[Norwegian Blue]

I'd be curious to see what proportion of people will admit to have driven while legally drunk, the actual figure would be shockingly high.

Probably. Teenagers do ****ing stupid things due to their perceived immortality. I was so pissed one night driving home at age 18 I had to pull over, wind down the window and throw up. Then I kept driving. Probably the dumbest thing I've ever done. The trick is to grow up and never do it again.

 

[LANGFORDandSON]

You need to meet some more people if im that interesting to you.

Im not edgy or a badass. Just sharing regular person experiences.

I didn't suggest you were a "badass", quite the opposite, in fact it's laughable that you would think that.

I guess you could say interesting, like watching a kid with ADD, you know exactly what's coming next but can't look away. In fact, ADD would explain a lot.

I'm more interested in meeting "regular" people who don't have to repeat the same crap over and over again just so people will look at them.

We have you for that.

 

[Gasometer]

How and why does this Advert re Drinking appear on this page?

Anyhow, I did a drinking test at the Pub with the Cops once and they had the breatho they used back at the Station. The idea was to show you how your coordination and response times deterioated across the night with each couple of drinks comapred to sober. At .05 most people were making basic mistakes that they would not make sober regarding their response times, and then progressively worse during the night.

 

[vealesy]

Gee that experiment sounds flawless.

The coppers MUST be right!

 

[Simple Jack]

At .05 most people were making basic mistakes that they would not make sober regarding their response times, and then progressively worse during the night.

Yep, but the law has decided that is an acceptable level of impairment. However, there is no practical (or any other besides precise measurement) difference between .0499 and .0500 but one of them is a strict liability offense with mandatory sentencing and the other isn't. You don't see anything wrong with this?

 

[Gasometer]

Yep, but the law has decided that is an acceptable level of impairment. However, there is no practical (or any other besides precise measurement) difference between .0499 and .0500 but one of them is a strict liability offense with mandatory sentencing and the other isn't. You don't see anything wrong with this?

Not really. There will always be 1kmhr over the speed limit and they build in a tolerance and build up an excalation of punishments with each speed zone.

They do escalate the punishment relative to the level of intoxication.

Do you propose zero BAC? Or does .05 need to be higher?

 

[chargers 09]

I dodged a bullet when I was 20 and still on my Ps. Had a decently big night on Good Friday eve at a friend's house, and then drove the next morning. As luck had it, I got stopped and tested around 9.30am on Good Friday, and I'm pretty sure that between say 7pm the night before and 2am that morning, I had drunk about 8 beers, a couple glasses of red and at least one shot of Johnnie Black.

Somehow- and to this day I'm not sure how- I was okay. I still have a suspicion that perhaps I did blow something small (remembering Ps have a limit of .00), but that the cop went easy on me. But then it was also Good Friday, and if you believe the stuff they say publicly about having zero tolerance over Easter...so who knows.

Since then, I have been pretty paranoid about it. It's not worth the risk, primarily in terms of the risk drunk drivers pose to others, but also in terms of the disruption it causes to your life.

Your shitting me aren't you? Of course you wouldn't have blown over, even if you had that amount of alcohol the night before wouldn't impair your driving.

 

[chargers 09]

You need to meet some more people if im that interesting to you.

Im not edgy or a badass. Just sharing regular person experiences.

Most people on here haven't had many interesting life experiences mate.

 

[Doss]

Your shitting me aren't you? Of course you wouldn't have blown over, even if you had that amount of alcohol the night before wouldn't impair your driving.

I was on Ps- I wasn't meant to blow anything at all.

It could easily have been 10 beers that I had, too. Whether it was impairing my driving wasn't the point- I was, and still am, surprised I blew zero.

Hence my scepticism, also.

 

[Gasometer]

I was on Ps- I wasn't meant to blow anything at all.

It could easily have been 10 beers that I had, too. Whether it was impairing my driving wasn't the point- I was, and still am, surprised I blew zero.

Hence my scepticism, also.

Indeed, had nothing to do with Doss impairment...he had to be zero BAC.

 

[Simple Jack]

Not really. There will always be 1kmhr over the speed limit and they build in a tolerance and build up an excalation of punishments with each speed zone.

They do escalate the punishment relative to the level of intoxication.

Do you propose zero BAC? Or does .05 need to be higher?

I personally don't think we need zero however I would have no problem with anyone making that argument. It's the 'hurr derr but thats wot it sez on da TV' crowd that seem to think .05 is some magical number where you suddenly become a menace to society exactly at it vs a good upstanding citizen at .0499 that concern me.

I don't even think .05 needs to be raised. It's probably about right. The thing that I think is rotten is the combination of strict liability + mandatory sentencing.

As you say there is 1km/h over the speed limit (don't get me started on those), however if you are doing 1k over the judge can take circumstances into account and decide you only need a warning, if you are at exactly .0500 instead of .0499 the judge does not have any room to move. It's a bad, bad situation.

 

[The Dice Man]

I was not on P's but had a big night on Bundy and ....

You should be locked up just for that!!! Putrid. Its the equivalent of women drinking only sav blanc from nz.

If eugenics were around, bundy wouldn't be. Of that I am sure.

 

[LANGFORDandSON]

Most people on here haven't had many interesting life experiences mate.

Sadly we don't all have the internal fortitude to drink Revolver dry.

I bow to your worldly knowledge oh enlightened one.

 

[chargers 09]

Sadly we don't all have the internal fortitude to drink Revolver dry.

I bow to your worldly knowledge oh enlightened one.

Righto mate