Drink Driving

Boozer

I have a friend who parked his car into a second story car park from the outside when he was drunk, he was also banned previously for drink driving, at the first court case(for second offense) the sherrif said that he was not fit to be walking the streets, so really did expect to do some time, but it ended with a 3 year ban and a big fine.
So i am afriad it is totally possible that your friend will do time, speak with solicitor ASAP and see if there is anything he can do in the meantime, perhaps enroll in AA or something to show he is trying to get back on track.

DirectDebacle

Prison is a possibility particularly as it his second offence within 10 years. The minimum disqualification any magistrates court can give is 3 years. There will be a fine and costs on top of this.

Our prisons are burtsing at the seams and a suspended sentence is more likely. Pleading guilty and good mitigation will help avoid an immediate custodial sentence as will promising to enter a treatment programme and accepting the offer of a Drink Awareness course if offered.

Over the last 10 years or so drink related driving convictions have flat lined at around 90.000 per annum. A small percentage of these are repeat offenders.

Over a similar period fatalities from traffic accidents have been at around 3000 per annum. In the mid 1970's they were at about 12000 per annum.

Over the last 10 yrs deaths from drink related road accidents have flatlined at around 17% per annum (approx 500). 15% of these were caused by pedestrians under the influence of alcohol.

Despite constant anti drink drive campaigns and the hostility shown towards drink drivers by the general public the figures are not significantly reducing. This probably reflects the sort of society we are in respect of our attitude towards alcohol in general. If the legal limit were set at zero it may not have any significant affect on the figures without society adopting a different approach to alcohol use and consumption.

Road fatalities have dramatically reduced since the 70's but are now more or less constant. The figures show that 83% of fatal accidents are not drink related but caused by other means. On the whole they are through driver error.

What has changed since the 70's is vastly improved vehicle safety which has resulted in a significant reduction in deaths and serious injuries. What has changed far less is the standard of driver training.

The most important safety feature of any vehicle is the person sitting behind the steering wheel.

Any Govt. seriously interested in road safety would have the basic level of driver training raised to that around the IAM/RoSPA standard.

Of course that will not stop accidents. Even advanced drivers have accidents, but there would be a significant reduction.

As for drink drivers? Well, like the poor, they will always be with us. No matter how many laws we have someone will always break it.

Raising the driver training standards is unlikely to happen as it would be political suicide. There would be public opposition and a powerful lobby from insurance companies and those associated with repairing/replacing vehicles, solicitors, doctors the list goes on. A good living is earned from the death and destruction on our roads.

Soap box moment over.

FabSascha

wuckfit wrote: »

As for not being able to stop someone who is determined, there are lots of ways, such as taking their keys and hiding them, or immobilising the vehicle in another way.

Well there you go then; sorted. Next time my aggressively drunk, six foot two dad tries to get behind the wheel of the car I'll just throw him to the floor, pin his hands behind his back and get his keys off him. That is of course assuming I don't have my car immobilising kit with me already. Brilliant advice! Thanks!

drew2k9

would shooting out the tyres be equally helpful advice?

i think people need to realise that circumstances are different for everybody, its not a black and white area, in the OP's case she obviously isnt going to be able to stop someone that much bigger than her.

ailuro2

superclan wrote: »

So what your saying is you actually knew he was drunk and still allowed him to drive 80 miles? I think you need to take a serious look at yourself, How would you have felt if he had taken someone else's life.

He was in the car and gone before any of us could stop him. You'll notice I didn't mention whether we'd called the police as soon as we could, and of course his local home police (we live in the same town so know the number of the local nick - it's not the first time I've called in erratic driving;)), and gave the registration number,make and model of car and the route he would be likely to take. I agree wholeheartedly if we had have let him drive off without trying to have him stopped we would really need to take a look at ourselves. Being holiday season , in reality, the were probably too busy to go tearing across the regions trying to trace a car.