Various Non-Bald Discussions > General Discussion
Something to think about.
Switchy:
How true. I am glad the laws and the attention is being made to those who drive drunk. There are so many rides that those who drink can get or the can have a DD . I do have some problems with the court systems , that many have been arrested found guilty , and are out doing the same thing drinking and driving. I have taken keys away from friends and gotten into fights, also paid for the trip home in cabs.
The thing that people have to ask themselves before this happens ! You aren't that lucky ;)
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year ! O0
Gary~:
--- Quote from: buddha on June 19, 2011, 03:47:17 PM ---In 1977 I was involved in a head-on collision with a drunk driver. I was driving a squad car and my training officer was seated on the passenger side. We both survived the crash but spent some time in the hospital as a result. He did no jail time.
He later killed a guy in a drunk driving crash but that occurred prior to the enactment of the reckless homicide charge in Illinois so he did no jail time.
Sometime later he was boating on the Chain O' Lakes along the Illinois/Wisconsin state line. He drove his boat over another boat and decapitated the other boat's driver. At that time there was no DUI law for boating. He did no jail time.
He finally got into another head-on collision in McHenry County Illinois with a car containing a mom, dad, and 2 young kids. The mom and dad were killed along with one of the kids. He finally went to prison.
In spite of all that I continued to drink for another 13 years, driving the whole time. It was just blind, dumb luck that I never repeated what happened to me and his other victims. I have to confess to not having the slightest idea as to how to reduce the number of drunk drivers and alcohol related deaths on the roads. It doesn't appear that anything works. Drunks get sober for the long term when they realize the need for sobriety. Everything else merely forestalls the inevitable.
On average treatment facilities achieve success with one out of 28 patients. By that I mean that one person out of 28 achieves one year of sobriety after completion of a 28 day residential program. People who are court ordered into AA many times head straight for the tavern from a meeting and then drive home.
I wish I knew the answer to this problem.
--- End quote ---
What a terrible story!
Of course there is no complete answer but in many countries including here in Australia they have Random Breath Testing [RBT] where the police stop cars at random and breath test the drivers for alcohol. This put a lot of people off drink driving. In some Australian states at the same time they also saliva test for some drugs like cannabis, speed and narcotics.
On TV here I get the US show called "Cops" which I am sure everyone is familiar with. I see that least in some states there they still use the antiquated "sobriety test" where the driver has to walk a straight line etc.. This seems to be a very inefficient way to test [also very slow for the cops] and I don't think it is applied randomly which might lead people to think "If I just drive properly and obey all the road-rules I'll get away with it". If they knew that they could be stopped at random and breath tested then at least some of them might think differently.
I suspect though that the US legal system might consider RBT to be an infringement of peoples' rights. Does anywhere in the US have RBT or something like it? I can only go by what I see on "Cops".
bella:
I stopped drinking a few years back but even when I did you couldn't have paid me a million dollars to get behind the wheel after a single drink. Just too much risk and not worth it in my mind.
It helps living in NYC so I don't even own a car anymore and even if I got a wild idea and went out and got blitzed I would take a cab or subway home.
I am SHOCKED at how often my friends from back home (midwest) drink and drive -- like seriously drunkenly drive. A few have told me they are "Good" drunk drivers. One friend racked up 12 DUIs in 3 years before she was inevitably killed by her own drinking (what got me to just stop altogether).
I am glad the laws are tougher and tougher. I feel irresponsible enough when I drive tired, operating a couple of tons of machinery drunk?
I have only been in one car accident but I suspect the other driver was still drunk/hungover. He ran a red light going 45 mph while I was turning left on green. But since it was 8 am, I was only 19 and the other driver was a respectable businessman, no breath tests were taken and no tickets were written. In fact the cop yelled at me for "not assuming someone's gonna run a red." Grrrrr. Thank god my car was totalled but the seatbelts and airbags did their jobs admirably and the worst injury was a chin bruise from me from the airbag hitting me in the face. :)
wutwutman:
I have to admit, back in my younger, dumber daze I was behind the wheel a time or two when I shouldn't have been. Only by the grace of God did I not injure myself or anyone else. Luckily I am one who learns by others mistakes also so I got "scared straight" by watching friends go through the DUI horrors. I wont have even ONE drink and drive now....
DSCSK:
Reading this thread has only made me think that I took a good decision by promising myself that I would never drink alcohol ever in my life.
I don't have anything against people who enjoy drinking or people who drink safely. This is just a decision that I have taken.
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