drink driving check

[beast5680]

Got stopped for the first time in ages this morning at 7am in a drink drive check :shock:  night after the england game eh? :?
Mr Plod was pulling over everyone in a van or truck this morning only no cars mind just the vans and trucks to check alchohol levels luckily i dont partake of falling down juice very often so was in the clear

[blackbob]

i think its good to have checks been driving comercial vehicles for most of my driving life and never been stoped yet
dont aggree with drink driving think it should be a zero tollerance thing

[smo]

Sounds like a good use of their time for once, makes a change.

[beast5680]

i dont mind being checked but they should make it fair and check everyone, assuming that just van and truck drivers will be over the limit is a bit off

[smo]

i dont mind being checked but they should make it fair and check everyone, assuming that just van and truck drivers will be over the limit is a bit off

Whilst you have a point, they have to target someone, and as van/lorry drivers are on the road all day, doing many miles they potentially pose a greater threat than someone doing a 5 min journey, also a 38tonne artic does a lot more damage than a 1t car!

[strapping young lad]

bloke in work got pulled driving early one sunday morning from manchester and got done

tool

[rollazuki]

I cant understand it.
Ive been pulled more times than I can remember on fast bikes etc, regularly on Sunday mornings early doors, and wednesday evenings on the usual lads ride out, and Ive never ever been breathalysed.
Weird aint it, never been a suggestion that I might be.

[strapping young lad]

cops like pulling bikers over though

dunno why, maybe jealous of the freedom or something

bloke in work said he would get pulled most weeks at some point or another

[woody]

i seem to remember le mans 24 hour
a couple of years ago
a car fliped and went off track into the woods (public land)
the driver was quite seriously injured and as they are trying to cart him off in an ambulance there was a copper trying to breathalise him

french law says anyone involved in a RVT  (on a public road/land) should be breathalised

[discograham]

I think anyone stopped for any reason should be breathalised.. and at random if you are getting into/onto your vehicle anywhere public..  or if you are on a pushbike... but then I have a serious issue with drink drivers. Any alcohol before driving/riding is unacceptable. If you have a heavy night then drive to work you deserve the book to be thrown at you... then to be beaten to a pulp with it... :shock:

[WishIhadaLandy]

I think anyone stopped for any reason should be breathalised.. and at random if you are getting into/onto your vehicle anywhere public..  or if you are on a pushbike... but then I have a serious issue with drink drivers. Any alcohol before driving/riding is unacceptable. If you have a heavy night then drive to work you deserve the book to be thrown at you... then to be beaten to a pulp with it... :shock:

This man's got the right idea :D

I do think you have a fair point about testing just the commercial drivers as if anything i'd have thought they were less likey to drink because their lively hood relies on them driving, and if their boss and / or Mr. Plod caught them drunk they would be fired instantly.

But it's like using mobiles while driving, even tho it is illegal, the number of people who still do it is frightening :shock:

[jjsaul]

But it's like using mobiles while driving, even tho it is illegal, the number of people who still do it is frightening :shock:

But is that as dangerous as drink driving?

Speeding is illegal but the number of people who do that far outweighs the drink drivers and phone users put together....

[att]

I see this is the fascist thread then.
I do not condone or partake in drinking and driving and have had a friend killed by one many years ago, so I do feel strongly about this.
However, when are we going to realise that this is the thin end of the ever growing wedge?
To only stop commercial drivers is discriminatory and is no different to stopping drivers of a certain ethnic origin.
I also ride motorcycles and have only ever been stopped a couple of times in the last 25 years.
To do it after a game of football the night before is also wrong, why not do it every morning?
Just smacks of injustice to me.
We are no longer allowed to enjoy ourselves in this awful land of Fascist, corrupt and biggoted officials.

[discograham]

I see this is the fascist thread then.

We are no longer allowed to enjoy ourselves in this awful land of Fascist, corrupt and biggoted officials.

I wholeheartedly agree with you about no longer being able to enjoy oneself ... nanny state, big brother, rules and silly regs, officialdom gone stark staring mad.. yadda yadda yadda....   My view.. do what ever the hell you like as long as it is not going to affect anyone else...  so drinking and driving is out. There comes a time when the safety of the innocent means your freedom to drink has to have the anchors put on. Football, wedding, whatever.. drink and dont drive !

[NiceBlueWellies]

I know of someone that does drink and drive.  They know it is wrong, but don't care.  Luckily we don't have much at all to do with that particular person, their whole outlook on life is warped.

All checks on vehicles and people driving vehicles are worthwhile.  It only takes 1 to cause many ruined lives.  If out of 100 people checked, 1 was caught, it would be worth it.  

To say it is not fair after the football - are you mad.  It is the time when there WILL be drunk drivers on the road and they need stopping.  Would you complain if they drove into you while you were walking along the day after getting bladdred, just because the football had been on?  Would you say - Oh, that's ok, you were just enjoying yourself the night before, that is if you were still alive?  Can't see it somehow.

I say, keep up the checks. Breathalisers and vehicle checks  Do them more often.  Take the people that don't deserve to be on the road, off it.  I drive lots for my job and used to drive for a living.  I was and am always more than happy to be checked.  I don't want to be killed by an irresponsible person - find them and throw away the key.

[murph]

Drunk drivers, keep em off the road, who cares what time of day they get tested, if they are prepared to do do it,,, then lets hope they get caught.

The police in this country also test at RTA's I have seen this many times, some think it quite inappropriate who Mr Plod asks them to blow in the box while they are being patched up by the paramedics, this is while were cutting the victims out of the other vehicles.

Certian distribution company's are considering bringing in random breath tests before drivers leave the depot's, fail they lose there job.

[Dirty Gertie]

Last week in Coventry,  the police had a big  presence; pulling cars, and mostly those displaying the "crap driver" red cross on white background warning flags.
Personally, having seen the carnage caused by drunk drivers, and having had to comfort their victims' grieving relatives a few thousand times too often; I think anyone who drinks and drives should be banned from driving for life (bans don't reform very many of them!!) and branded across their foreheads, so that everyone can see what irresponsible, antisocial, murdering [person of questionable parentage] they are!!! :(vamp):

[bezzabsa]

Totally agree with the zero tolerance. As a HGV driver if I do have a drink then thats all it is A Drink(usually a shandy too  :oops: ) but know of several people who think nothing of downing 5 or 6 pints then driving from the pub, also had a driver that used to regularly turn at at 7am STRAIGHT FROM THE PUB.. god knows how he never killed anyone!!!
When I am on my bike the only thing I drink is pop,

[discograham]

Hers's a quickie for you...
Until I was made redundant in feb I drove an artic for Tesco.. I will name them cos they cant deny what Im going to say next.. one of our drivers lost his licence for being 3 times over the limit when stopped in his car. Tesco found another job for this guy for the year that he was banned for... wrong in my book... the guy should have been sacked on the spot. Then they put him straight back in a lorry and his drinking continues. 40 tons of tesco artic..... say no more. :(
The only reason I dont name the guy and our depot is because the moderators would most likely pull my post if I did...

[WishIhadaLandy]

artic are like 40 ton guided missles in the wrong hands, my dads a transport manager in london and they have a zero tolerance on any law breaking, be it drinking and driving, using a hand held mobile, driving without a seat belt or speeding.

[blacknight]

I am unfortunatly classed as disabled due to me only having one arm, its the right arm and is missing from above the elbow.

Many a person will look at me, nod and say "motorbike accident" and when I reply with a yes the reply is normally "thought so, dangerous machines aren't they".

Mine was only a "dangerous machine" due to a drunk driver in a Mercedes who was twice over the limit coming round a corner on the wrong side of the road. Nearly lost my leg, broken left wrist, broken right arm, severed artery feeding right arm and bad neck, these are just some of the injuries. The reason that I lost my right arm was due to the nerves being pulled out of the spine, people in the medical profession call this bracheal plexus.

This happened 21 year ago and since then have had 21 years of pain due to phantom limb pain. A pain so bad I could be rolling around on the floor in agony, this could happen most days. I have been going to pain clinics who have been attempting to ease this pain without much success.

I am off work at the moment due to just coming out of a hospital in Liverpool, a fantastic hospital with brilliant staff. Had an operation on my spinal cord to try and ease the pain, an operation where nerves in the spinal cord are corterised. A very frightening and risky operation, it was a very hard decision of whether to have it or not due to the obvious risks. Its early days yet but only time will tell if its been a success or not.

Need I say anything else about the risks of drinking and driving??

[dazzawhipple]

I Think Blacknight has said all there is to say about drink driving

Darren

[Grant]

I Think Blacknight has said all there is to say about drink driving

Darren

Definately, best of luck Blacknight.

I used to see drink drivers all the time when i played tennis at the local club. everyone drove in, played a few games, had a few beers in the clubhouse then drove home. they were never [!Expletive Deleted!] but enough to slow the reactions down. it must happen everywhere, i dont think the message has got home

[andycwb]

All checks on vehicles and people driving vehicles are worthwhile.  It only takes 1 to cause many ruined lives.  If out of 100 people checked, 1 was caught, it would be worth it.  

I kind of agree with the sentiment, but I'm not sure that ALL checks are worthwhile; they are time consuming and inconvenient for the 99 people who are in the clear.  

To say it is not fair after the football - are you mad.  It is the time when there WILL be drunk drivers on the road and they need stopping.  

I agree with the notion of having more checks after events like the football and around Christmas when more people are likely to be over the limit - and especially the morning after when it's very easy to forget last night's 8 pints.

Would you complain if they drove into you while you were walking along the day after getting bladdred, just because the football had been on?  Would you say - Oh, that's ok, you were just enjoying yourself the night before, that is if you were still alive?  Can't see it somehow.

Good point.  

While I don't condone drink driving, there is a world of difference between the person who knowingly and willingly drives when they are WAY over the limit and the person who registers fractionally over the limit the morning after, but I don't believe that either society or the legal system makes any differentiation.  In the latter situation they'd probably be just as dangerous (from lack of sleep) if they were at .075% (legal) instead of .085 (illegal) - the alcohol is irrelevant.  

Just to be clear, they still shouldn't have been driving, but the focus on the alcohol limit isn't the whole story, in the same way that 29mph is safe and 31mph is dangerous on any given road.

It's not just alcohol that affects your judgement - after struggling to concentrate sufficiently for the 20 minutes to get home after an overnight flight a few years ago I now refuse to drive after long flights, and I try to avoid the morning-after-the-night before situations as well: even if I wasn't drinking very much, I'm too tired to be safe.

Keep it safe out there, folks, and best wishes to Blacknight that the operation helps.

[NiceBlueWellies]

No denying it is inconvienient at times to be stopped, but rather that than some numpsy kill me!


As they say, better to arrive late while in this life, than arrive early for the next. :shock:

Good luck blacknight - hope it works for you.

[andycwb]

No denying it is inconvienient at times to be stopped, but rather that than some numpsy kill me!

At the risk of being inflammatory, would you say the same if you were randomly searched in case you had drugs or stolen goods on you?   How often is acceptable?  Once a year?  Twice a month?  Three times a day?

I think it needs to be balanced: I'm all in favour for a swoop like this when there's something to raise the profile, but I generally don't feel that stopping and searching the innocents is the best way to stop crime.

[Manicminer]

It's my opinion that 1 drink is too much.

I also never drink if I drive the next day.

I'm sure that more people take drugs and drive. Test them and ban them.

[discograham]

This is not about stopping crime.. this is about not destroying lives..
I don't care if I'm stopped 3 times a day.. as long as it's polite and quick and purely for the purpose of a breath test... I don't drink and drive and never have but the point is how do the old bill know who is innocent until they check ? .. let them check...

[andycwb]

I'm sure that more people take drugs and drive. Test them and ban them.

There should certainly be the same level of legislation and enforcement around other mind-altering drugs.  It's perverse that it's (sort of) OK to drive when out of your mind on something you shouldn't have been able to take in the first place.

This is not about stopping crime.. this is about not destroying lives..  I don't care if I'm stopped 3 times a day.. as long as it's polite and quick and purely for the purpose of a breath test... I don't drink and drive and never have but the point is how do the old bill know who is innocent until they check ? .. let them check...

You're a lot more tolerant than I am: even if we were stopped more often, it probably still wouldn't deter the hard core drunkards that are the real problem.

[discograham]

One thing I am not.. when referring to crime and punishment... is tolerent... hang 'em, flog 'em, chuck away the key etc... :lol:
Society has gone soft and we shall reap the whirlwind... :shock: