Sly Bald Guys Forum
Various Non-Bald Discussions => General Discussion => Topic started by: buuckkweet on December 05, 2010, 08:24:26 AM
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Hi SLY Brothers!
Around the middle of October, one of my friends did something VERY foolish by his own hand. He made the decision to drink and drive.
VERY FORTUNATE no one was injured because it was a one vehicle accident.
His truck is trashed.
He HAD a CDL license.
He is driving on a temporary license that he will have to surrender soon.
His Mom and Dad are shelling out a lot of $$$ for a lawyer for legal representation.
The county that this incident took place in is VERY strict on DUI offenders.
Basically........the court is going to drop the hammer on him.
All of his parent's $$$ can't help him.
December 13th is his court date.
This is not going to go away overnight.
His troubles are just beginning.
So the next time you have a few drinks, use your cell phone and call for a ride, or appoint a designated driver.
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Very sound advice. The old adage that you will reap what you sow usually comes back to haunt us.
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GOOD POST. This is really something to think about. I made, with the holdays here, this is a sticky. Hope some people benefit from your friend's misfortune.
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I can relate...good post. I'm still dealing with the financial fall out from my EX's 2nd DUI. She is in prison now. She was out "partying" and other things(off and on for a month or so) with her DUI instructor(Group Dynamics is a required course for DUI offenders in Wisconsin)...and was leaving his house when she nearly killed a man and injured several others. Of course she fled because a married(at the time) woman had now business being where she was at the time. I didn't know the truth until after I bailed her out and retained her lawyer.
I am thankful to have her out of my life and it is a Blessing...
Ironcially, the last I heard, the technical college that he is employed at doesn't let him instruct anymore, but put him in charge of Traffic Safety. When I asked them(as per my lawyer) to offset some of the cost in this, their dialogue abruptly ended with me...
But the money is nothing compared to other's losses or what could have been...
Just a few weeks ago, no more than 3 miles from my home on a road I travel a lot...a drunk driver, at 7am in the morning...swerved into the other lane and caused a crash. A mother and one of her two children were injured...but her other boy, probably on their way to school...died at the scene. I believe he was 8 years old.
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Thanks for posting this. It cannot ever be stressed enough.
I'm guilty of doing it.... once. I was 17, and had just bonged a few beers at a friend's house before I had to leave for work (that's a teenager's sense of responsibility for ya). That was the scariest drive of my life. I was in and out. It felt like I had next to no control of the car. Luckily, I made it to work OK, but I don't know how...
That was enough for me to learn my lesson. Over 10 years later, and I have never even attempted to do it again. Never will.
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I can't remember when it was but you can research the posts about my personal incident with drinking and driving. Your friend will survive this and hopefully with a ton more wisdom. By the time my specialty insurance was paid, fines, lawyer, etc. one FREE night of drinking cost me over $13,000.00. I wish others could read our stories that have been through things like this and not make the same mistake. Unfortuanately experience has taught me that most people end up having to learn this lesson on their own. Someone I was very close too, saw what I went through ended up getting a DUI himself. I used to do alot of "preaching" about this but now I don't. But if there is anyone out there with an ear to hear it's real simple............DON"T DRINK AND DRIVE!
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Wow---sucks to be your friend but he made that choice now has to face up to his responsibility. I'm glad no one was hurt, including him.
I hope this taught him a lesson!
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Speaking as a law man, they are indeed serious. People complain about guns but intoxicated drivers are far, far more dangerous and have killed and injured far more than guns. That doesnt even include the surviving family members and what they live with. :popo
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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.
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Important message, thanks for posting, don't play Russian roulette with other people's lives
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this may look like an old topic, but interesting :)
2 years and 3 months since I last time tasted alcohol :D (any kind of )
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Everything in moderation...
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I am usually a DD for my friends. I don't drink...and don't plan to. My biggest problem is sleep. Making sure I am fully awake driving on a long day.
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I'm generally the driver for my crowd when we go out. I usually sip a couple of beers early and then the last couple of hours before we leave wherever we are, I just have some water or a coke.
I have a beautiful wife, three great kids, and a responsibility to my Friends and their Families to get us all home safely.
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I am allergic to alcohol that is why I am always the designated driver during night outs.
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Allergic to alcohol? What are your symptoms to that beside yelling, cussing and gettin' naked?
:*))
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Allergic to alcohol? What are your symptoms to that beside yelling, cussing and gettin' naked?
:*))
Red rashes, chills, itching and palpitation.
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Allergic to alcohol? What are your symptoms to that beside yelling, cussing and gettin' naked?
:*))
Red rashes, chills, itching and palpitation.
Wow, I never heard of that before...it's good that you recognized it and stay away from it.
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I'm allergic too, know how you feel Kalbo!
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Being a firefighter for many years, I've seen the aftermath of these accidents. It's very rare that the person who decided to drink is the one injured, and most times it's innocent people who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. But the ones that always turn my stomach the most are the ones where the parents are the ones drinking then go driving with their children. I cannot understand how a mother or father can knowingly put their child in a car when they've been drinking
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I know what you mean, "EE". I have a neighbor I talked/lectured for years before he woke up...I asked him how would he feel if he was a widow and his kids were dead? I don't know if what I said helped, but...
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CAuse And Effect , But it is a good law and has protected him and will protect him and others in the future , he could have lost his life . I NEVER drink any alcohol if I am driving even the night before .
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It sounds so simple...........don't drink and drive. Yet every year,there are far too many deaths or injuries from this. I agree that driving drunk is FAR more dangerous to society than guns and the numbers prove it. Your friend will lose a lot BUT............he didn't lose his life or kill somebody.
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It sounds so simple...........don't drink and drive. Yet every year,there are far too many deaths or injuries from this. I agree that driving drunk is FAR more dangerous to society than guns and the numbers prove it. Your friend will lose a lot BUT............he didn't lose his life or kill somebody.
O0 How very true.
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I had an Aunt killed by a drunk driver when my cousins were 8 and 12 back in the early 60's. Laws were abysmal and the person got off totally. What remained were shattered lives and trauma which to this day is fresh and raw when I hear of anyone doing this. Be safe and use good sense.
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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
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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.
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".
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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. :)
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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....
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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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Thanks DSCSK for resurrecting this old thread. People also forget too that buzzed driving is still drunk driving.
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Yeah, I am allergic to alcohol too. Every time I drink it I break out in scars and tattoos!
I am also a retired Cop. Here in Illinois (USA) we cannot just stop people at random and make them give breath tests. (We have a funny notion about personal freedom and preventing the government from being able to search or seize our person without probably cause. We even fought a war and revolted against a tyrant king (England) over this!)
That is why we still do the roadside sobriety tests. If the subject FAILS one of these tests we then have the probably cause to place him under arrest unless and until he voluntarily gives us his breath. Here in Illinois the individual has the right to refuse to give us his breathe; but if he refuses, his driver's license is automatically suspended for a year. (A lot of people do this because it is better to "only" lose your license for a year rather than get a conviction for drunk driving on your record!