Lowering drink driving limit.

Teatime said:
I have been checked for drink driving twice and both times were while living abroad. I live in a rural area now and the chances of being stopped on way home from the local are almost zero.
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I gotta agree with this too. Enforcement of the law with regard drinking and driving is not all it could be.
 
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6898273.ece

From today's Sunday Times - "... Recent research by the Health Service Executive found that at least 18 drivers killed in crashes between 2003 and 2005 had a blood alcohol level of between 50mg and 80mg. ..."

In the same article Jan Battles perpetuates a dangerously inaccurate and sweeping generalisation with no basis in science or research - " ... reduced limit of 50mg — the equivalent of a glass of wine or pint of beer. ..."

Although the inappropriateness of her comments pale into insignificance beside Mattie McGrath's beliefs about alcohol's use as a relaxant to improve driving standards - [broken link removed]
 
I think that mandatory testing at accident scenes is a good thing but on the whole feel that this is just another way our government is taking money off us. Pretty soon no-one is going to have the cash to run a car if things keep on going.... increased fuel costs, motor tax costs and higher insurance premiums....its just getting ridiculous. Laws keep on being brought in and not followed through, (don't get me started on provisional licence holders ) - I suppose the govenment have to find new and creative ways to justify their expense accounts (trips to Cyprus/Malta to check out their drink driving regs for instance )
 
as i said before the politicians dont give a toss about road safety,.this is all about making themselves look good by appeasing the 'temperance movement'
when did anyone ever see a politican miss an oppertunity to grab a headline!
 

But what were the other factors involved in those cases? Without knowing all the facts, this piece of info is not conclusive. Where did the crashes occur? Were the drivers speeding? Were they provisional license holders?
Without all the facts, the argument is only as valid as Homer Simpsons Rock/Tiger argument.
 

Lets say that in those two years 20 people involved in fatal accidents had between 50 and 80 mpg in their system. Do we leave it at that and say that the cause was 'drunk driving' or do we look further, what speed, how long were they on the road, outside factors etc. We should broaden our scope.
 
MrMan said:
... we should analyse everything.
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Ah yes, the good old "paralysis through analysis" option. Do nothing but continue to talk about doing something, sometime, maybe. Set up more tribunals, commission more expert reports, establish yet more committees of inquiry and research groups - give the appearance of doing something while people are dying and getting injured.

The research is done, the evidence is in and the congruent policy changes are implemented across the EU - apart from Ireland, Malta and the UK, 89% of the member states agree.

Why not change one key factor that has a significant effect on road safety and monitor for statistical variation? It might save lives and injuries and it is highly unlikely to cause any harm.

Alternatively, expand on Mattie McGrath's ingenious suggestion, which I'm sure is backed up by vast armies of researchers and libraries of papers. According to the article above, the bould Mattie believes that "... some people feel more relaxed behind the wheel after a drink... " and "... drink ... can make people who are jumpy on the road, or nervous, be more relaxed ...".

So by extrapolation, make drunk-driving Government policy and ensure all drivers including Pioneers, recovering alcoholics, teetotallers, 17-year old moped drivers and 16-year old farmers can only start their vehicles after consuming alcohol. Look out for the beneficial effects of implementing these insightful and perfectly-researched observations. It might be an idea to run this on a test basis initially though, somewhere like Craggy Island with Messers McGrath, Healy-Rae & Co as the crash-test dummies-in -chief.
 

Now where did I get the idea that you enjoy dramatics?

If speed is the major factor in road deaths then maybe we should lower the national limit to 60kph, but will that make people drive at that limit or will certain people continue to break the law regardless?
If people were against reducing the national speed limit to 60kph would you label them 'pro speeders' or speed freaks? It would have more of an impact on road deaths than dropping from 80mpg to 50mpg, so why not?

Or we could let those who obey the law as it is get on with things and prosecute those that do not obey the law. There are so many grey areas as to how many you can have most people wont stray over one pint, so I don't see the need for any further change.
 
Although the thread title is "Lowering drink driving limit" the bulk of your post is about speed limits and this IMHO is symptomatic of the "paralysis through analysis" syndrome; let's talk about anything except the elephant in the middle of the living-room, in this case our propensity as a nation to drive with BACs that would get us banned in all except two other jurisdictions in the EU.
MrMan said:
... There are so many grey areas as to how many you can have most people wont stray over one pint, so I don't see the need for any further change.
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Amazingly government-sponsored advertising for years gave the right message in the "If you drink, don't drive" campaigns. So for anyone with an interest in road-safety and who cares about the well-being of other road-users the message has been clear for years.

There is no grey area - for anyone who cares, don't drink and drive; if you don't care, guess at a safe limit and you'll eventually get it wrong. Hopefully the consequences of this behaviour will be visited only on the drunk-driver.

The bar-stool wisdom of "just one will do" has back-fired too often. As the BAC table I reproduced above says "... Some users may become intoxicated at a much lower Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) level than that shown... ". So as the experts can't predict in advance how much is safe to drink, you'll understand if I take issue with some ignorant idiot deciding that he knows how much alcohol he can safely drink before sitting into his car.
 
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starlite68 said:
so mathepac, i take it you would be in favour of a zero alcohol limit?
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You can of course interpret my documented support for the topic in the posted thread Title "Lowering drink driving limit." to 50 mg as being "in favour of a zero alcohol limit", that's your entitlement.

Here are the circumstances in which I believe this would be an appropriate interpretation -

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone," it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many things."

Through The Looking-Glass: And What Alice Found There
Lewis Carroll

But to respond to your statement / question directly, I'll quote another character in the same book - "Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."
 


A title provides the the theme for the topic and other issues can and should be used to tease out our arguments. without doing that we might all end up with very narrow minded views.
your use of 'paralysis through analysis' is perhaps more of a sidestep to a question rather than an answer.
 
mathepac said:
From today's Sunday Times - "... Recent research by the Health Service Executive found that at least 18 drivers killed in crashes between 2003 and 2005 had a blood alcohol level of between 50mg and 80mg. ..."
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Recent alternative research (that I have just made up) found that at least 18 drivers in the last 20 years that crashed cars in supermarket carparks had rice krispies for breakfast.


Wish I got that amount of value when I drink one pint.

Would you reduce speed limits on Motorways to 50mph - it would save lives?
 
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