Should the legal limit be higher???
 

Personally I think it should be, I drove home last night and blew a .10 and was perfectly fine driving ( my buddy owns a breathilizer)

Just wondering what you folks think

And you know that you were "perfectly fine" how?

No, the legal limit shouldn't be higher. You should be smarter.

Because he remembers it and he didn't kill anyone?

So you knew for a fact that you were over the legal limit and decided it would be a good idea to drive anyway?

http://www.mullen.com/wp-content/upl...t_carcrash.jpg

:facepalm: Please let me know if you're ever driving in the Lawrence area.

But he made it, so he's cool.



FTR, I've driven when I knew I shouldn't. Difference is, I'm not saying it's okay.

We need a legal limit for stupid thread-starting.

Has anybody keyed your car recently?

I wasn't dazed at all. A little buzzed but overall I handled the driving very well.

Honestly I'm not trying to troll here, I honestly thingk the legal limit should be raised.

If you disagree I understand

Are you aware that one of the side effects of alcohol consumption is the impairment of judgment?

No, not really.

The science behind it is fairly well established to this point. For the average person, their reactions begin to suffer recognizable impairment at .08.

I'm not going to get into a debate as to the "I was fine" element because it's irrelevant what an individual claims. There are 12 yr olds that are better drivers than people in their 30s - that doesn't mean I'm lowering the driving age to 12 any time soon.

Laws have to be written with the average impact in mind. After a fair amount of scientific study it was shown that a BAC of .08 is sufficient to impair reaction times. That's good enough for me.

Personally I think .08 is too high.

Which would cause more outrage? Cutting speed limits in half or raising the BAC limit?

Good luck defending this position.

Yup.

Also, breathalyzers need to be calibrated no less than once a year to maintain accuracy. Not sure if that applies to your friend or not, but there's a remote possibility that you weren't actually at a 0.10.

What we need is a mandatory 1 year visit to prison, then perhaps dumbasses like the OP wont be tempted to get behind the wheel after getting plastered.

Very true.

wasn't plastered AT ALL actually

Great thread idea.

Defending drinking and driving.

Dumbass.

DWI should be an Olympic sport.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TizrtoRZeZE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

George Carlin had a great idea about drunk driving. He said that we shouldn't eliminate it, we should make a special lane for it. One lane that goes both ways, so that the only people they kill are themselves.

I agree with George Carlin.

Oh and I've been guilty of the stupidity myself, thankful that nothing happened.

my argument is that .08 really isnt being drunk. At least not from my experience

Just my opinion though

I'm all for this. Whatever it takes to get drunker drivers on the road.

If you blew a .10, you were drunk and not only put your own life at risk but also other drivers. I lost a dear friend to some drunk ass who thought he was fine after a night of bar hopping. I hope you never have to look into a child's eyes and tell them you're sorry for killing their mommy because you "were just fine"

Are you a child?

If you've been drinking, you shouldn't be driving AT ALL.

That is pure gold. LMAO

That isn't the point.

Might as well play devil's advocate.

Let's get off our high horse, morality police. Are we to say that drinking and driving is definitively more dangerous than sober driving at 75-80 mph on crowded highways? Driving drunk AND driving at high speeds? Yes, of course... but what about driving drunk on 35 mph roads? What then? Especially in regard to fatalities. Which is more dangerous? I know what we are wired to believe, but if we really are trying to protect our fellow American citizens, why not take away the convenience of high speed? Set the max limits at 35-40MPH. I guess it's because we can rationalize one convenience and not the other.

:spock:

What the ****?

You must be quite the idiot. First you thought to yourself, "I am blowing a .10. I know that is above the legal limit, but that is okay I am going to drive anyways."

THEN you come on here and start a thread to raise the legal limit? Did you really think that would go over well? I can't figure out which action was a more stupid decision. :shrug: At least when you were buzzed your judgment was impaired. Not sure what the excuse is for this thread.

People tolerate it differently. .08 is about the only compromise available. You may be fine @ .10, but a 98 lb female will be plastered at a .10. You just never know.

Worst post ever?

We all shit on drunk drivers and then go out and drive 70-80 MPH without blinking an eye. Wanna pull up some high speed fatality statistics?

how come I was successfully able to handle a car at .10 then ?

You're not very good at playing devil's advocate. There are thousands upon thousands of people who drive at 75-80mph safely all the time. As a percentage of all drivers, crashes at those speeds are very rare.

Crashes among drunk drivers, on the other hand, are relatively common. Roughly one-fourth of all fatality accidents in the U.S. involve a drunk driver. So unless you're arguing that one-fourth of all drivers are drunk, then it's pretty obvious that speeding isn't as dangerous as driving drunk.

But how often does speed play into the factor of drunk driving death? If they were drunk and driving 38MPH it may be a different story.

STFU numbnuts! Drunk driving is drunk driving. People die or get seriously injured in slow speed crashes all the time. Just ask any EMT.

I live in Montana and drive 80 MPH almost every day and don't have ANY problems. I bet if I drove around liquored up every day, I would have LOTS of problems. You do know the speed limit on the interstate is 75............right?

99 out of 100 times, you will get away with it. 1 out a 100, you will be floating in shit creek.

So you're suggesting that we lower the speed limit universally so that drunk people can drive? Or am I missing your point?

:facepalm:

Are you drunk, RIGHT NOW?

Because you were lucky and/or no situations arose where your impairment (and reduction in reaction times) caused an accident. Also, you don't know that you were handling the car fine.

You ARE aware that alcohol impairs one's judgment and reaction times, yes?

Don't wanna get busted for circumventing the filter.

Yes.

i used to think i was driving fine while loaded until one of my buddies video taped me.
i wasn't, that straightened my ass out about drinking and driving.

That's pretty cool. Was he in the car taping you, or did you do some sort of driving test in a parking lot? And what about that changed your attitude?

No. It should still be illegal. But the people who get really passionate against it are misled. Speed kills. They should fight that battle, but they won't. Nobody wants to drive slow. It's ironic

I mean in terms of fatalities.

Interesting factoid that I dug up out of curiosity: roughly one-fourth of traffic fatalities occur on roads with speed limits of 35mph or less. It's higher at high speeds, but not dramatically so; roughly one-third of traffic fatalities occur on roads with speed limits of 55mph or higher.

So basically, unless you've got some source you're using that says otherwise, speed is only slightly correlated with traffic fatalities.

Data source here if anyone cares:
http://www.census.gov/compendia/stat...atalities.html

No. Acceleration kills and resulting damage kills. And, if two drunks hit each other head on at 35 mph, that is the equivalent acceleration of a single person hitting a bridge at 70 mph.

he was the in a car behind me,
we left a club where he was taping a set of a band i was gigging with.
they tried to take my keys (i wouldn't have any of that) and i took off thinking i was fine.
the next day i saw the clip, i was all over the road. thankfully it was late at night and very little traffic on a two lane road.

That should be a requirement for all people turning 21. That would definitely be a deterrent. I think you should really try to get that out there to people that can champion it.

That is interesting. Good stat. I might be inclined to believe that many of those are one car accidents (Darwin if driving drunk) or that they were driving 50+. Theoretically, the 35 MPH roads would be <20 MPH roads. That whole revoke the license for twice the limit might change some minds. Maybe.

FTR, Im not proposing anything.

You want more people out driving drunk? How about this, if you are drunk, don't drive. It isn't hard.

QFT

OP, n=1 in this instance. Research says you're wrong

Its too bad admitting you drove drunk last night isn't a crime. I'd be all for the mods tracking down your IP and contacting the police. Sounds like your dumbass needs to be in jail.

Well that's what they get for being drunk. Drunk driving would still be illegal. Im just saying if we want to pretend that we're about saving lives and making the roads safe, we're missing the biggest problem

I hate to tell you this, but the physics doesn't change whether they are both drunk or not. The above scenario is also true if only one of the people is drunk (or neither are). Although it becomes more likely if alcohol is involved.

This. It's time for the CP miracle workers to put this tool in the shed.

I'm not sure what charges could be filed, honestly. For all we know, this person is making it all up.

No, because the 1st thing you lose is JUDGMENT , not necessarily driving ability. SO at .10% you MIGHT be able to drive fine, but your judgment of that call would be jeorpardized...as would your ability to judge whether you should 'have anohter' or wait a an hour and drink water...

Big NO from me.

Alcohol is a very dangerous drug. We need to invest in an alternate way of dealing with drug use because arresting millions yearly is just a waste of resources and it does absolutely nothing to improve society but instead has escalated violent crime just as it did during the first prohibition.

if you drive to a bar and have more than 3 drinks, you are over the legal limit most likely. I'm positive that every person bashing the OP has done that and will continue to do that.

It's pretty simple - if I drink, I don't drive. I wind up as the DD more often than not, but better that than having my friends driving impaired.

Legalize MJ

I worked a crash where One driver was turning and another driver ignored the red light going 40. The 2nd driver was on drugs, 1st driver died on scene.

I do not condone drinking and driving, it is not worth the risk of harming yourself or anybody else and as stated by many judgment is the first thing to go.

That being said to address the question in the OP............

The reason they do field sobriety test before breathalyzers is because all people do not have the same tolerance level.

Yes you may be fine at .1% but the laws are established to protect the masses from the average person not some professional drinker who could pass a field sobriety test at .1%.

If you were "fine" as you stated you could probably pass the field sobriety test, or you may not and you go to jail. Is it worth the risk?

What do you imagine the outcome of that to be?

Idiot on multiple levels.

It's too bad your buddy didn't have a breathalyzer to measure stupidity, as I'm certain you would have clearly seen you shouldn't be on the road.

When does this get moved to the DC?

Oh great...the next thread you start will be about the theft of some guys laptop. Think before you type sir.

:doh!:

Yeah, too late now. I'm glad they have regular DUI checkpoints where I live. Anyone planning to drink & drive here is just begging to get busted (as well they should). It may not stop em all, but they do help.

absolutely not, in fact, it should be at .05

And Kansas is 75

I did it all the time when I was younger. Now, thankfully, my town has a decent cab system, and I also couldn't afford a DUI with my job. It's well worth the $8-10 in cab fare to get home from the bars. Of course, I'm only going to the bars once a month max.