Help pls! teenager drinking & driving, what do I do?

tic_toc

Contact your local police force and ask to speak to one of the Safer Neighbourhood Officer for you area. The police will not be able to prosecute your daughter for this incident as they will not be able to prove the amount of alcohol in your daughters breath or blood even if they can prove she was driving. Your safer neighbourhood officer will be more than happy to visit your home and speak to your daughter and point out the risks and consequences. If she thinks signing on is embarrasing she will most definately find being arrested, searched, handcuffed and taken into police custody, fingerprints taken, dna taken and mug shot done embarrasing. As she has been driving for less than 2 years, if she were to get caught the courts would come down heavily on her. She would receive at least a 3 year ban and a fine. She would also have a criminal record.

Your daughter needs a wake up call and getting caught may be the only way to get rid of the "it wont happen to me" attitude, as a parent you can only advise and get advise from others like the police. At the end of the day she is responsible for her own actions. Who is paying her car insurance & tax etc. If it is you then remove that from her and make her stand on her own 2 feet. She may then have to make a choice between keeping her car on the road or her beer money.

The courts put orders on people prosecuted for drink driving ensuring they go on a driver improvement course. This educates on things like impairment from alcohol and the effects on driving skills. I am not sure if this cause can be accessed privately, but it may be worth trying to find out.

Good luck, and hopefully your daughter will come to her senses very soon.

mrcow

Take the keys to your local police station. Tell them what she did and tell her that she knows where to get the keys back from when she wants them..


Let them deal with the rest.

rosered1963

mrcow wrote: »

Take the keys to your local police station. Tell them what she did and tell her that she knows where to get the keys back from when she wants them..


Let them deal with the rest.

:T
I love this! In a nutshell mrcow!

tic_toc

Although a great idea, please dont take the keys to your local police station. They are not your property and by taking the keys you have technically stolen them. Tough but true.

Your local police will be interested. Like I said before they will not be able to breathalise or prosecute your daughter on this occasion, but alot of policing is intelligence led and if the police are aware of your daughters habits then they will be able to keep an eye on her. If you provide them with the registration number they will be able to put a note on her car record and like someone said earlier she would be stopped by the police and if they can smell alcohol on her or her manner of driving gives suspicion she will be breathalise. This alone will start to teach her about consequences.
You could even pass the information anon by ringing crimestoppers. This info is then passed onto the police.

The local police will come and speak to your daughter if you ask them to, it wont be a priority but they would get round to it. The police dont just react to things after they have happen, they work towards prevention as well.

Give them a ring and see what response you get.

Mips

Your daughter could get in that car, and kill someone elses daughter. Not to mention herself.

I would shame her. I would let everyone know she is a drink driver, and let her know that it's not acceptable and that nobody else thinks it is.

If you shame someone enough about their behaviour, they will think twice about doing it again in my opinion.

cheepskate_2

I think your first port of call is to start bringing disipline and self worth into your and her life.

She obey's house rules and PAYS you rent.

She gets a job , my son worked for McD's for 3 months (even tho he had 9 o'grades and 5 highers) first job he could get and a good learning lesson. (he was going into forces then changed mind so was jobless mid Sept. after leaving school) I personally think i learned him to stand on two feet by making him do this and if needed to he will not be shy to take any job.

When she doesn't obey your rules as a child/youngster/young adult , you are sending out a message that rules are to be broken, this is ecactly what she is doing.

You need to start taking back responsibility and showing her how it should be.

MrsTinks

rev_henry - you might be a safe driver, but you're an inexperienced one that doesn't make you a BAD driver, you just haven't got enough hours behind the wheel to react to things by gut instinct if something happens Not saying all "experienced" drivers do either btw
At 17/18 I was driving a 2 seater convertible (my beloved x1/9...) and I was invincible and drove accordingly - looking back I'm certainly not proud of that but I did learn very quickly about the system of car control and how my car reacted in the wet, on sharp bends etc - now at 29 I'd say I'm a very experienced driver, not only because I've spent endless hours driving for work, but I ended up loving driving so much I did 4x4 off road competitions A safe environment to learn all about how cars react in different conditions

Drink driving however is something that I loathe with a passion... I've seen the look on my ex's face after shifts where people didn't get to go home again - all because of drink drivers... I've heard him talk in his sleep when he's had the nightmares...

tiamai_d

MrsTine wrote: »

rev_henry - you might be a safe driver, but you're an inexperienced one that doesn't make you a BAD driver, you just haven't got enough hours behind the wheel to react to things by gut instinct if something happens Not saying all "experienced" drivers do either btw
At 17/18 I was driving a 2 seater convertible (my beloved x1/9...) and I was invincible and drove accordingly - looking back I'm certainly not proud of that but I did learn very quickly about the system of car control and how my car reacted in the wet, on sharp bends etc - now at 29 I'd say I'm a very experienced driver, not only because I've spent endless hours driving for work, but I ended up loving driving so much I did 4x4 off road competitions A safe environment to learn all about how cars react in different conditions

Drink driving however is something that I loathe with a passion... I've seen the look on my ex's face after shifts where people didn't get to go home again - all because of drink drivers... I've heard him talk in his sleep when he's had the nightmares...

I agree with this! I didn't drive (and pass) till I was 25, so not a 'young driver'. But I still had many an oopsy that first year. Reversing into a lampost, wall, hitting wing mirrors off the same skip twice in the one day. Luckily nothing that was serious but it all was down to inexperience. It does take a few years for that judgement to come, I remember not knowing what to do when a car was on my side of the road overtaking on a corner. You brake obviusly but at the time it did take that split second longer for me to react. Same with the decision you have to make at roundabouts when someone pulls out infront of you, speed up to get past them, slam on the brakes, veer out to avoid them or hit them ?

twinklie

I was hit by a drunk driver several years ago when I was on my way to work at 6am. I was crossing at a zebra crossing and an SUV came round the corner at high speed and didn't so much as dab the breaks. I'm fine now luckily and have no long lasting issues.

However, your daughter shouldn't have the choice BUT to look at images of drink driving accidents. I for one would gladly speak to anyone who thought it was ok! I won't even so much as have one sip of alcohol if I'm driving - I think the limit should be 0!

I also saw my friend get flung 20 ft or so by a drink driver when we were about 13. Needless to say he died straight away due to a broken neck. But it certainly brought home the realities to me!

rev_henry

I'm not too sure these whole shock tactics really work on young people. I recently went to a road safety awareness talk put on by the fire brigade (I had to to get my pass plus for free ) and they basically shoved pictures of mangled bodies in our faces and said 'this is what happens if teenagers drive stupidly.' There were several people there who were clearly very shocked but personally I've seen that kind of thing before and it simply will not change how I drive. Moreover they also showed several clips by the Irish road safety board (or some organisation like that) which were road safety ads which were too graphic for this country. Needless to say they all showed young lads showing off to their girlfriends and then crashing and being horribly injured, but all the scenarios I found so unrealistic it was laughable; I was thinking to myself the whole time 'Nobody drives like this ever, even the most reckless young lad.' Now of course I could be entirely wrong about that but tbh I don't think I am, it really was taking it to the extreme end of dangerous driving.
Maybe I'm just not the type to be shocked by shock tactics, but OP it may be that your daughter would fall into that same category as well; it does sound like she might to me.