Drinking and driving: should it be illegal?

Drinking and driving: should it be illegal?

  • Total voters
    75
Perfection

Perfection

The Great Head.
Joined
Apr 9, 2002
Messages
50,092
Location
Salisbury Plain
It is obvious that drunk driving should be illegal as driving while drunk makes one a significant road hazard and endangers others.

However, drinking and driving need not lead to one being a significant road hazard. If one has a (12oz) beer during an hour long trip, and hasn't had alcohol before can we really say that they've done something particularly unsafe?

edit: I AM NOT REFERRING TO DRUNK DRIVING, RATHER CONSUMING ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES WHILE OPERATING A MOTOR VEHICLE.
 
Where I'm from, we call em road sodas.
 
Perfection said:
It is obvious that drunk driving should be illegal as driving while drunk makes one a significant road hazard and endangers others.

However, drinking and driving need not lead to one being a significant road hazard. If one has a (12oz) beer during an hour long trip, and hasn't had alcohol before can we really say that they've done something particularly unsafe?
Click to expand...

That's why they go by blood alcohol content. One beer in a tiny girl or a large man is not going to have the same effect.
 
Perfection said:
It is obvious that drunk driving should be illegal as driving while drunk makes one a significant road hazard and endangers others.

However, drinking and driving need not lead to one being a significant road hazard. If one has a (12oz) beer during an hour long trip, and hasn't had alcohol before can we really say that they've done something particularly unsafe?
Click to expand...

We have BAC level thresholds for a reason.
 
When you're in control of thousands of pounds of steel and glass, the less impaired you are the better.
 
Perfection said:
It is obvious that drunk driving should be illegal as driving while drunk makes one a significant road hazard and endangers others.

However, drinking and driving need not lead to one being a significant road hazard. If one has a (12oz) beer during an hour long trip, and hasn't had alcohol before can we really say that they've done something particularly unsafe?

edit: I AM NOT REFERRING TO DRUNK DRIVING, RATHER CONSUMING ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES WHILE OPERATING A MOTOR VEHICLE.
Click to expand...

thats the way it is now, drink one beer and you wont trigger the blood alcohol limit

I lean toward doin away with DUI, I'm more concerned with drunk drivers and thats best determined by the cop on the scene.
 
No. We should let them drink while driving. While we're at it, I'll hand RPG-7s to schoolchildren.
 
No, it should not be illegal, but if you cause an accident because you were drunk at the wheel, you should be punished. If you kill someone, you ought to be executed. If some people can drive safely with an '0.XX', then let them.
 
Labtec600 said:
When you're in control of thousands of pounds of steel and glass, the less impaired you are the better.
Click to expand...
Presumably there would be little to no impairment with limited alcohol consumption.

Berzerker said:
thats the way it is now, drink one beer and you wont trigger the blood alcohol limit
Click to expand...
No it isn't. Drinking while driving is a prosecutable offense in most of the US.

SS-18 ICBM said:
No. We should let them drink while driving. While we're at it, I'll hand RPG-7s to schoolchildren.
Click to expand...
I would like you to elaborate on your analogy please.
 
Well, everyone has different tolerances, and while a single beer isn't a problem for most, it's still not going to be safe, and where there's one, there's likely more. I don't think an open container should be treated the same as one being over the limit though. And hard liquor should definitely be out of the question. Open containers in public should be legal though!
Labtec600 said:
When you're in control of thousands of pounds of steel and glass, the more impaired you are the better.
Click to expand...
I agree.
SS-18 ICBM said:
No. We should let them drink while driving. While we're at it, I'll hand RPG-7s to schoolchildren.
Click to expand...

Finally, a business venture I can help out with! When can we start?
 
Drinking anything, whether it has drugs in it or not, whilst driving is a hazard because it takes one hand off the wheel and takes your focus away from the road onto the drink.

Alcohol is a CNS depressant, causing decreased reaction times, etc. Any amount, no matter how small, will have an effect (unless of course it is so small that it is metabolized before you drive, or instantaneously while driving, but the latter is implausible). The matter of blood alcohol content is just to what degree you will be effected.
 
It should be illegal for the reason that it is impossible to have "just one beer".

It just never happens. You have one beer and the next thing you know you've had 12 and you're wallking around in the snow in your socks and you don't know where your car is.
 
SS-18 ICBM said:
Business venture? I'm doing it just for the laughs.
Click to expand...
Well, while you hand them out, I'll mug.
warpus said:
It should be illegal for the reason that it is impossible to have "just one beer".

It just never happens. You have one beer and the next thing you know you've had 12 and you're wallking around in the snow in your socks and you don't know where your car is.
Click to expand...

That's better than behind the wheel!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Goodfella
Air Marshals: Sleep-deprived, medicated, and suicidal
2 3 4
Replies
60
Views
6K
Timsup2nothin
Timsup2nothin
Valka D'Ur
  • Poll Poll
Iron Pen 2: Road Trip! - Stories and Voting
2
Replies
33
Views
4K
Terxpahseyton
Terxpahseyton
Mark1031
Sex, Drinking, Cars, Kids and Laws
2 3 4
Replies
70
Views
3K
innonimatu
innonimatu
Formaldehyde
Man Dies After Police Thought Stroke Was Refusing To Comply
2
Replies
27
Views
5K
Formaldehyde
Formaldehyde
Camikaze
Raising the Legal Drinking Age
2
Replies
39
Views
3K
Arwon
Arwon
Back
Top Bottom