drinking and driving poll

[leftofthedial]

Poll question: drinking and driving poll

what is the worst thing on the following list that you have done?

I've worked as a musician for decades, much too much of that work in bars. I've seen major changes in social attitudes and laws regarding drunk driving.

To this day, I can not believe how drunk some people are when they leave and yet insist that they can drive.

Drunk driving is a huge growth industry in this country.

Poll result (71 votes)
never have had a drink within four hours of driving	(5 votes, 7%)	Vote
occasionally drive after one or two drinks	(18 votes, 25%)	Vote
I've driven when I was drunk, but got away with it	(33 votes, 46%)	Vote
I've been stopped for driving under the influence, but got off	(7 votes, 10%)	Vote
I've been convicted of a "minor" driving intoxicated offense--ability impaired, like a DWAI	(0 votes, 0%)	Vote
I've been convicted of one serious offense, like a DUI	(7 votes, 10%)	Vote
I've been convicted of more than one serious offense	(1 votes, 1%)	Vote

[Squatch]

1. First time was the last time.

Coming home from a wedding and definitely drunk. Got stopped by a state trooper for speeding. He took my license, gave me a warning, and sent me on my way.

Now, I don't even get behind the wheel after a single drink. It was a hard lesson to learn, but it could have been so much worse.

[leftofthedial]

2. I do not drink anymore unless

I am wherever I plan to sleep

or

I am walking/not driving.

DUI is NOT worth it. especially here in Colorado.

[uncle ray]

10. that's why i sleep in the car.

[leftofthedial]

13. don't do it with your car keys in your pocket or within reach

in Colorado, you could still get a DUI for that.

[uncle ray]

17. i know, i was joking,

you know, drink only where you sleep...so do it all in the car, drink, drive, sleep...

i've actually been quite responsible.

[leftofthedial]

23. I know a guy wh got a DUI leaning on the trunk of his car

waiting for the ride he arranged so he wouldn't drive drunk to come pick him up

and another guy who got a DUI while sleeping in his clothes, in his sleeping bag, in his tent with his car parked next to the tent.

[rockymountaindem]

28. Are you serious?

How can you get a DUI while you're not even in the car? That boggles the mind.

[leftofthedial]

30. intent, opportunity

Colorado is hard ass about DUI enforcement now.

[rockymountaindem]

31. How do they prove intent?

And why are they looking so hard to find reasons to bust people on DUIs? This really seems to me like they're over the line.

[leftofthedial]

32. yep, it sure seems they are over the line

I recently met with a group of 12 people serving DUI sentences. 5 of them were not driving when they were arrested.

Enforcement is very aggressive, especially in certain jurisdictions and during statewide holiday crackdowns.

This is a huge industry, growing very fast. From the legal system to the lobbyists to the "mental health" practitioners who rake in the dough conducting the mandatory education and therapy that are part of every sentence . . .

[pitohui]

33. the profit motive

they fine people, you know, "court costs" and all that

who cares if the person's life is destroyed, all that matters is the revenue

[uncle ray]

34. cause they can't make any money off pot smokers here!

when i was visiting, before i moved here, got pulled over for a burned out light, the car reeked. cop said "enjoy your stay!"

[Beaverhausen]

3. When I was young I was really stupid - didn't get caught

thankfully - but now that I'm older and wiser I don't get behind the wheel if I'm at all buzzed.

[leftofthedial]

4. good thinking!

The thing that amazes me is that those people I see sometimes at gigs who just get slammed will still be over the legal limit until the middle of the next afternoon.

I know a guy who was involved in a minor fender bender (not his fault) on his way to work at 8:30 in the morning. He ended up with a DUI from the night before! About $10,000 cost, three months of no driver's license, six months of regular AND random breathalyzer and urine tests and nine months of "education" and "therapy" later and he is just now trying to get his life back to normal.

[anarch]

5. I was stopped for a burnt-out headlight once,

after a couple of beers, spread out over several hours, and the cop said he could "smell the alcohol on my breath"...I don't know if I was over the legal limit or not (probably not), but I didn't get breathalyzed anyway. I passed the field sobriety test and was just given a repair order for the light. The best part was having to do all that goofy crap like walking a straight line and standing on one foot while counting to thirty and all that, in the parking lot of a Taco Bell in a college town. That wasn't humiliating or anything.

[leftofthedial]

6. The legal limit most places now is .08

that's buzzed, but that's not a level at which most people would report feeling seriously "drunk"

whatever your maximum blood alcohol level was while you were drinking, it will only drop .01 an hour after you stop drinking. So if you had three beers in an hour (depending on your weight--two beers in an hour for many women) or four in a couple of hours, you are at or over the limit. Nothing but time will lower the level.

If you ever get to .08, you need to wait at least an hour or two before driving, or you risk a DUI.

Those staggering, falling down, speech slurring people generally are at least double the legal limit, or 8 hours from being at the limit, or 9 or 10 hours from not risking a DUI or 16 hours from being completely sober . . .

It is very likely that the legal limit will be lowered even further in many places.

[anarch]

8. legal limit in dc is, I think, 0.05%

Previously it was 0.00, but there were a bunch of embarrassing stories about people being arrested for driving after drinking a small glass of wine with dinner and such.

Anyway, I was in Maryland when I was stopped for the headlight...if I had to guess I'd say I was somewhere around 0.02 or so, based on being about 175 lbs and having three beers over a period of about five hours, and not really feeling even buzzed. Still would've been enough to arrest me if it had been in the district at that ponit.

[leftofthedial]

7. I'm shocked there aren't more convictions reported in the poll

[Sugar Smack]

9. If I'm driving, I MAY have one beer, but no more-

And then I'll wait an extra 30 minutes past the hour before I get in the car.

[SteppingRazor]

11. I've got one DUI, and I've been administered roadside tests...

a couple other times. Amazing what you'll do when you're in college. These days, I live in a city with plenty of cabs, and I have a job that pays enough money for me to afford them.

[DS1]

12. I'm so fucking hammered right now I voted in the wrong thread

shit, time to go home

*grabs keys*

[leftofthedial]

14. can you give me a ride?

here, want a hit from my flask?

[Burma Jones]

15. I was stopped by Houston's finest once

I was doing about 80 in the southbound access lanes of I-45 right around the Fuqua exit. I was getting off my shift in the kitchen of the TGI Friday's (back when they actually cooked there) and had downed a couple of beers and 6 or 7 Martinis in the space of two hours. I had a 9mm Baretta in the glove box and a .410 in the front seat. It was a 1979 Thunderbird, a true POS. Anyway, the officer asked for license and registration. I remember telling him that I had some firearms in the car and remember him just saying that I should retrieve the registration slowly. Anyway, he took the license and registration, came back and asked me why I was going so fast on the access road, I told him that I was from up north and that I though y'all just had real big highways in Texas, they let me off with a warning and told me that if I wanted to speed, I needed to do so on the main highway.

The next day, I remembered to thank my parents for being white........

[leftofthedial]

16. nice story!

[LynzM]

18. I drove 8 blocks home once....

After two beers in three hours. At my weight and tolerance, that was too buzzed, and I knew it after about a block. I drove the rest of the way, very carefully, and have never driven when I shouldn't have since.

[Sugar Smack]

20. No one answers us. We're too boring.

though!!!

[LynzM]

21. I know, Sugar!

Ah well, to ya!

[leftofthedial]

24. here's to both of you

(bofya)

[Dave Reynolds]

19. After not remembering getting somewhere,

I learned to sleep in my car.

[blitzen]

22. Time to play the Johnny Paycheck classic: "I'm gonna drink and drive...

that woman right off of my mind"

"Five dollars worth of regular
Ten dollars worth of wine
Hand me a road map
Show me the state line, etc."

[Oeditpus Rex]

25. What's a DWAI?

[sendero]

26. I did some really stupid shit..

... back in the 70s. Now, I don't take chances.

[Lady Effingbroke]

27. DDWADAT

Driven Drunk While A Dumbass Teenager - got away with it every time.

The worst that ever happened is the cops would tell us to pour out our beer when they pulled us over.

[TSIAS]

29. I've been charged

But never convicted.

I know I'm suppose to feel sorry for them, but Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), has truly become a disgraceful organization. Their goal is to make driving with any kind of beer (even one or 2). MADD has been taken over by a group of nutcase CONservatives hell-bent on instituting a second prohibiton in this country.

[Downtown Hound]

35. I agree

When I hear all these stories about people who weren't even driving getting DUI's and all kinds of other shit, it's clear to me that these laws are way out of control. I know people that have gotten DUI's when their blood alcohol level was UNDER the legal limit! How is that possible? Beats me, but it happens.

[Broken_Hero]

36. Have driven

drunk in the past(five years+ ago) but haven't in five years, if not more. Never been busted, never pulled over while under the influence, and I am grateful, nothing bad/horrible happened...