32 replies to this topic

[memoryproblems]

Also, you are implying cops are exempt from the risk you put on others? a few months ago on my local news, there was a story of a cop that was killed on the interstate cause a driver was driving on the wrong side of the interstate with no lights on and hit the cop head on. The cop died on impact. The driver was drunk.

To be honest, about 90% of cops are fucking pathetic excuses for human beings and would be no loss of consequence. I have no pity for a group of people who habitually oppress people, who habitually pervert justice, and who habitually abuse their power.

 

All right, maybe only 85%. The other 15% are good people who genuinely want to help people. I got fucked over last summer by cops who either didn't give a fuck or didn't have a clue what they were doing. I haven't forgotten. Fuck them. (I was a victim of a terrible case of assualt/battery that necessitated me taking a pretty expensive helicopter ride to a trauma center, and they completely botched their investigation of the case, there's more and it's worse, but I won't go into it here.)

 

Aside the cops and the random people Jon wrote about, since when is it okay to kill drunk people? I mean a father of 4 walks home from a bar after having some drinks. He didn't take the car cause he didn't want to take a risk. Then comes memoryproblems, runs him over and yells "You drunk bitch" ???

 

Actually, what I say is more along the lines of "Should have gotten a car, BIYOTCH!!!!" but you would have difficulty hearing me as I generally like to go back around the block to do a clean job at it.

 

(In before personal stories that make me look like a total dick.)

 

But honestly, what I really meant to say is that around here anyway, there is absolutely nobody on the roads from about 1AM until 6:30AM, and those who are are basically rolling the same dice as a drunk driver. (because they are also likely drunk drivers.) I just can't wrap my head around how it's proper to rape a guy who blows .08, take away his license for a year, send him to jail for a weekend or something, cost him 3-10 grand in fines and lawyer fees. That's just beyond ridiculous for a driver who is less dangerous then somebody who's been up for 24 hours.

[Redezra]

It's the principal that counts.

 

Like prosecuting the fuck out of anyone possessing drugs. Makes it a scary prospect to do dumb shit that'll hurt other people.

[Alyster]

While I'm quite a boozer myself, I seriously dislike drunk drivers. I mean anyone remember what happened to Moo-Cows? Moreover last January I also lost a friend in traffic, his Jeep was hit by a 19 year old dude in a Jag, who had been drinking earlier. 

 

And this is a place where I don't accept excuses. 

Edited by al-Yster, 07 March 2013 - 04:55 AM.

[memoryproblems]

Sometimes people act like it's only drunk drivers who cause accidents.

 

There have been a ton of car crashes, many of which that have been fatal by sober drivers. I don't know what the numbers are, I'm sure that drunk drivers are a little higher, but exactly how much higher? I doubt that somebody who is .08 or .12 is more then 150% as likely to cause a car wreck than a sober driver.

 

But driving, being on the roadways, it has risks and people absolutely know those risks (or they should). If you're driving on the highway there is risk from other drivers, if you're driving late at night, there is increased risk, if you're walking on the sidewalk, you know the risk is low, but you should know that it is ever present. So yeah it's sad, but that's life.

[Haflinger]

There are plenty of accidents involving sober drivers out there. The fatal accidents however is where you see a lot of drunk drivers being involved.

 

In 2009, in the United States there were 33,808 traffic fatalities. Of those, 20,961 fatalities occurred with no drivers having any blood alcohol content. 10,839 fatalities occurred when at least one driver was above the legal limit of .08. Incidentally, an additional 1,905 fatalities occurred when at least one driver had some alcohol in the bloodstream but none were above the legal limit.

 

62% of all fatalities resulted from sober drivers, in other words. Sound high? Well ... no. A lot more than 62% of the drivers out there on the road are completely sober. Drunk drivers, who are a quite small minority, are responsible for 38% of the deaths.

 

Source is the U.S. Department of Commerce: http://www.census.go...fatalities.html

[memoryproblems]

We know how many drivers there are total, but I'm not sure how accurate it is to say that there are just a few drunk drivers out there, to say that they are a minority. How do you know  how many drunk drivers there are? We know how many are caught, but it's hard to say how many aren't caught. I have a friend *cough* who has driven home, say 2 miles a couple dozen times where they were likely just narrowly over the legal limit. Hasn't been caught a single time.

 

Kinda depends on where you're from, there are some areas where something like 1 in 200 people get busted for a DUI every year, and those are just the ones that get caught. Sure drivers under the influence are more dangerous, but probably about 80% of them are barely over the legal limit, say .08-.12 and they probably aren't more dangerous

[Alyster]

memoryproblems unironicaly please go kill yourself

 

(and only yourself while you're at it)

 

I mean I can be an ass most of the times on IRC, but your a moron IRL.

Edited by al-Yster, 08 March 2013 - 11:38 PM.

[memoryproblems]

memoryproblems unironicaly please go kill yourself

 

(and only yourself while you're at it)

 

I mean I can be an ass most of the times on IRC, but your a moron IRL.

 

Right-o.

 

That's funny coming from a worthless piece of crap that has never amounted to anything and never will. Good luck with your life, I wouldn't cry deeply if you end up like Matthew Shepard.

[Haflinger]

OK you two, calm down. Quit it with the personal attacks.

 

However, you're simply arguing against the stats there MP. Remember that most people who drive drunk don't drive drunk all of the time. Think of yourself; how many times do you get behind the wheel completely sober compared to how many times you drive after having a few drinks?

 

It's only serious alcoholics, people who are drunk all the time, who drive drunk all of the time. We don't have exact numbers on them. However, the higher estimates indicate that possibly about 8.5% of Americans suffer from alcoholism. Still, most alcoholics are not drunk literally all of the time. I'd be surprised to find those numbers, the really extreme cases, are above 1% of Americans.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

As some of you may know, this issue is deeply personal to me.  I will admit that I have driven short distances while mildly high, but the data on this are inconclusive.  Frankly I think I'm probably a safer driver then because I pay close attention, as opposed to just sort of going on autopilot like I would otherwise.  If nothing else I'm certainly a slower driver when I've had a toke; under normal circumstances I'm a bit of a speeder.  But having said all that, it's probably not a good idea to drive under the influence of any substance, and I try to avoid it most of the time.  But driving drunk is something else altogether.  That I would never do.

[Justavictim82]

I have myself driven drunk on multiple occasions. I am not making excuses for my behavior but people do stupid things when they are drunk. Never have I even come close to an accident and it has always been way into the night. Is it frequent? No. But as a 30 year old who started drinking at 15, I have done it maybe a half a dozen times

[memoryproblems]

You seen those commercials where they say "buzzed driving is drunk driving"?

 

I'm usually not driving drunk, when/if I drive after drinking, I'm probably barely buzzed, otherwise I walk/find other options. I just think it's stupid how freaking anal they are and how little slack they cut people. It's like "Say, I pulled you over because you didn't leave your blinker on long enough, you've got an absolutely perfect driving record but you just blew a .081, we're going to revoke your license for a year, fine you $2,000 and make you spend the weekend in jail."

 

It used to be that they would cut people a little slack. Good people who did no one any fucking harm, whose lives are turned into hell for maybe drinking 1 drink too many. I wonder what the suicide rate is like amongst people who have recently been arrested for DUI, it must be high. I know I'd sure as hell kill myself if I got a DUI, but then again I'm not all that fond about living even in my best of times.

 

Anyway, Friday night some friends and I went to the bar, and they proceeded to get fucking smashed (One of them spent 70$, the other just $40), but I spent 9$ and had three beers. I smoked an entire pack of cigarettes in two and a half hours, so there is also that. I proceeded to drive home, but on the way we needed to stop to see somebody. (One of the friends wanted to stop and see somebody, probably not for the best of purposes, I don't know). Anyway, as we were looking for the address I "didn't come to a complete stop" at a stop-sign and a cop appeared out of no where to pull me over.

 

"You smell strongly of alcohol, I'll be up front with you". Fuck.

 

He gives me the field sobriety test, and because he makes me do it on an inclined parking area and the wind is blowing 30 miles per hour, I probably don't do so well. I ask him how I did, he said he picked up several "triggers" on each test. Fuck. He gives me the breathalyzer test, I blow .011, less then 1/7th of the legal limit. Cash in the bank, boy-o.

 

But I was sure as fuck nervous, did I have 3 beers? or was it 4? But the fucked up thing is he said if he didn't have the PBT (the breathalyzer thingy), he would have had to take me back the station for testing. Isn't that a fucked up deal? When my BAC was the equivalent of drinking less then one beer?

 

Anyway, Opportunity came knocking on my door, and the odds are looking good that I might get into a different (and higher-paying) line of work in which I'd get a commercial driving license and drive a straight truck. In Kansas, the punishments are actually more strict for DUI if you have a CDL, even if you are driving a personal vehicle when you get it, and 1st offense = lose CDL for a year, 2nd offense = lose it for life. I guess my days of even buzzed driving, like all good things, are coming to an end.

 

But again, there is a difference between driving buzzed and driving drunk. How much dangerous? Who knows, I doubt they keep seperate statistics on the two, but I'd guess most accidents, particularly fatal ones are not by drivers who are in the .08-.11 range, they are the ones in the range of .15+

 

For the lesser of the drunks, wouldn't it be a better world if we adopted spiderman's policy?

 

 

But I digress, this is the world we live in, perhaps I'm just upset because of the growing number of laws where they bust you when you didn't do a damn thing to anybody else. Some fucking nanny state we're beginning to live in. Somedays I seriously think about offing myself just to escape this fuckhole.

[Haflinger]

MP, they do indeed keep track of statistics on driving buzzed, i.e. with some blood-alcohol content but below the legal limit. I referenced them in my post; you can go to the source.

 

Most people arrested for drunk driving blow well above .08. The record in the United States is probably Terri Comer, who was .72. Of course she didn't blow .72 because she was unconscious when police found her vehicle in the ditch; she was tested at the hospital. You can read the story here: http://www.thesmokin...est-driver-ever

 

A French driver did blow 0.976. Astonishingly he was conscious. That story is in French: http://lci.tf1.fr/fr...lu-4859363.html