Most people are fairly reasonable and intelligent when they are sober. When they've had a few drinks, their reason and intelligence starts to diminish. When they're roaring drunk... all bets are off.
Case in point--- a few years ago, we parked our car one Saturday night in the Lake Street Ramp. When we came back, we found a very drunk young man sitting in the car, with his key in his hand, trying to find the ignition. We tried to persuade him that this wasn't his car, and that he should take a cab home, but he insisted that it was his car, and that he was fully capable of driving it home. If we had been able to offer him a personal breath-testing device, I don't think it would have made much of a difference; a guy who is too drunk to find the ignition (but convince that he's OK) is not going to be persuaded by a mere breath-testing device. I'm not opposed to those devices. If bars had them, they might a bartender persuade marginally-intoxicated people that they shouldn't be driving. But they won't do much for the serious drunks who cause the worst tragedies. Eric Westhagen wrote: > <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> > <html> > <head> > <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> > </head> > <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> > On the same subject:<br> > <br> > I have carped for the longest time about the lack of "easy > availability" to personal breath testing devices marketed and given > away. Possibly MAD should spend their money in doing that? > People are > going to socialize with friends and they are going to public places to > drink. Most people are intelligent and will wait until they are > "legally in control" if they only knew when that was. The few who > with mental problems must face the stiff laws we have now. But what > percent of the population are they. We have stiff laws. But > yet > ordinary people are picked up all the time who would just as soon wait > another half hour if they knew their breath score. These testers are > dirt cheap, both in devices and one shot tests. They are all over > the > internet if one is aware. Why should ordinary people take risks and > subject their lives to the trauma of court, huge fines, and worse.<br> > <br> > <br> > Again since greed is so popular a topic. The tavern and restaurant > owners don't want people just sitting around and certainly the > municipalities have most to gain with these huge fines. In fact if > there were absolute zero as you suggest, the municipalities would be > against that as there would be no question of the breath limit. So, > I > put this out to MAD. Just why don't you promote personal breath > testers???<br> > <br> > Eric<br> > Matthew Berigan wrote: > <blockquote cite="mid:[email protected]" > type="cite"> > <style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style> > <div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> > <p>Folks,</p> > <p> </p> > <p>This may be somewhat tangential to this list's bike focus but > I'm > always amazed at how it seems so difficult to enact effective controls > for OWI here and don't know how to start talk about a potential > solution to the problem. Last July I was in Brazil when they did a > federal-level change that they called "tolerancia zero." I swear that > almost overnight things changed and the news reports brought data about > drastic reductions in accidents. I didn't see a lot of people wringing > their hands over "rights" lost or the use of blitz road-checks. In > fact, most everybody thinks it is pretty cool. Taxi cab drivers love it > as their business has boomed.</p> > <p> </p> > <p>I've had my close calls with OWI drivers. It scares me when I'm on > a bike, when I'm in a car and when I'm on foot.</p> > <p> </p> > <p>Oh - I'm not against drinking.</p> > <p> </p> > <p>Here a blurb on Brazil's "Zero Tolerance:"</p> > <p> </p> > <h1>Zero Tolerance for Drinking and Driving in Brazil</h1> > <div class="date">Monday July 21, 2008</div> > <div class="entry"> > <p>Brazil has a new <a moz-do-not-send="true" > href="http://gobrazil.about.com/od/gettingaroundbrazil/a/drylaw.htm";><font > color="#0000ff">zero tolerance law for drinking and driving</font></a>, > valid all over the national territory. The law, which came into effect > last June 19, has spurred the debate about the dangers of driving under > the influence. Studies which informed Law 11.705, commonly referred to > as <i>Lei Seca</i>, or Dry Law, conclude that there is no risk-free > limit for blood alcohol content (BAC) in drivers.</p> > <p>The previous BAC to configure a DUI in Brazil was .06. The Dry Law > goes beyond tackling drunk driving to crack down on <a > moz-do-not-send="true" > href="http://alcoholism.about.com/od/dui/a/impaired.htm";><font > color="#0000ff">impaired driving</font></a>. </p> > <p>However, a great number of Brazilians feel that there is still > more to be done. According to a <a moz-do-not-send="true" > > href="http://www.omid.mg.gov.br/pesquisas/I_Levantamento_Padroes_Consumo_Alcool_Populacao_Brasileira.doc";><font > color="#0000ff">national survey about alcohol consumption in > Brazil</font></a>, > the heaviest drinkers in the country are people between 18 and 24 years > of age. The legal drinking age in Brazil is 18, but the consumption of > alcohol is growing among younger people, aided by a lax enforcement of > laws against the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors.</p> > <p>From: <a moz-do-not-send="true" > > href="http://alcoholism.about.com/b/2008/07/22/brazil-adopts-zero-tolerance-dui-policy.htm";>http://alcoholism.about.com/b/2008/07/22/brazil-adopts-zero-tolerance-dui-policy.htm</a></p> > <p> </p> > <p> </p> > <p> </p> > <p><strong><font size="5">See larger article</font></strong> with > some stats on drop in accidental death rate drop at <a > moz-do-not-send="true" > > href="http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43317";>http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43317</a></p> > </div> > </div> > <pre wrap=""> > <hr size="4" width="90%"> > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" > href="mailto:[email protected]";>[email protected]</a> > <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" > href="http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org";>http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org</a> > </pre> > </blockquote> > </body> > </html> > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org > _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
