Difficult to know where to post this but it's about drink driving

[Cendrillon]

[quote user="Sunday Driver"]

The police are certainly getting active around here.  I've been stopped twice recently for a 'controle alcoolemie' - the first time was in our village square on a Saturday teatime and the second was last Friday on the way through our local town at 1.30pm.  On that occasion, they were out in force with around a dozen officers stopping every vehicle.

I'm thinking of asking my local gendarmerie for a carte de fidelité so I can collect bonus points......

 

 

[/quote]

LOL!

[Hoddy]

Going back to Tony’s original case, I think it’s worth considering designating one adult to remain alcohol free so that they can make rational decisions and drive if necessary. A friend of mine belongs to a car club which meets ocasionally  in the summer for caravanning/ camping weekends. On one occasion they were having their usual Saturday night party when a stray dog turned up out of the blue and savaged one of the children. Because she was pregnant my friend was the only one capable of taking the child to hospital.

Hoddy

[Frenchie]

[quote user="Sunday Driver"]

The police are certainly getting active around here.  I've been stopped twice recently for a 'controle alcoolemie' - the first time was in our village square on a Saturday teatime and the second was last Friday on the way through our local town at 1.30pm.  On that occasion, they were out in force with around a dozen officers stopping every vehicle.

I'm thinking of asking my local gendarmerie for a carte de fidelité so I can collect bonus points......

 

 

[/quote]

I drive to the north of the department at least once a week, and I ve NEVER seen the gendarmes , never been stopped!!

I must have the face of an angel     LOL

[:D]

 

Where do you live SD ?

[newbiee]

It shocks me very much how much I see English folk drink over here and then drive a car - sometimes with their KIDS in it! 

I'm certain English people drink  more over here, and then drive, than they would dream of doing in the UK ... citing the rural nature of the roads as their excuse... that and the unlikely event that they will be pulled for a breathaliser.

How many of you would feel comfortable refusing to give friends / acquaintances more than one or two alcoholic drinks when they are visiting your home for a social event and you know they are driving?  I would do it (if I spotted it), but it would certainly feel odd.

[mint]

I've hesitated to contribute to the thread in order not to add to the pain of the OP.

But, Hoverfrog is right about the people who were prosecuted because one of their guests was permanently injured through drink driving and had to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.  I had a special reason for remembering the incident (but more of that later).  What it did impress upon me was that I now have a reason to give to OH when, in his misguided generosity, he keeps filling people's glasses up.

As for the reason for remembering, I used to be on a research project (Dorset Institute before it became Bournemouth University) on Road Traffic Accident Bereavement.  RTAs that involved drink driving were getting more prevalent and part of my work involved my talking to the survivors of drink driving accidents and also the relatives of people killed where alcohol was implicated in the fatal mix.

It was just so heartbreaking, listening to the stories.  And, as in Tony's friends' case, people were surprisingly often killed within a couple of miles of their own home.

I remember a father telling me that, when he went out the next morning to look for his missing son, he found scuffed shoe marks on the country road about half a mile from their house.  He followed the foot prints to nearby bushes and found his son still alive but barely breathing.

The boy subsequently died in Special Care but, the worst of it was, he hadn't been drinking but they found the hit-an-run driver HAD been drinking and was too afraid to stop.

I worked on that project for about a year but my boss, the Head of Research, fell ill and we had to abandon the project as there was no one to supervise it to its completion.  It was just as well because I don't know how many more harrowing stories I could have listened to and still stay sane.

Dying oneself is one thing but the thought of being responsible for the death or permanent disablement of another person simply does not bear thinking about.  Then, there are the ophans, bereaved parents, spouses, siblings...............the ramifications go far and wide.  PLUS you'd always know that it could all have been prevented (and here I mean the person doing the drinking and driving).

[opas]

Well I must admit to causing a lot of hastle for my neighbours and their invites only a couple of weeks ago. Why?    Becasue I am sick to the back teeth of them inviting all and sundry to our village , they arrive in cars with beeping horns, bring their bottles of wine, pastis and cannets of beer, start a BBQ at11 pm get louder drunker and let the kids make as much noise as they want ::::::::::then they drive off down my village where my daughter and mates could be walking:  I phoned the gendarmes; they came and told them that if they drove they would be stopped and brethelised: Result; noise till 2am and a neighbout and their mates who cannot beleive what merde the English neighbours are:::::::::::am I bothered: not really , as no one was killed that night:

Oh and i am not a goody 2 shoes; I do drink ; but only in the house and neither of us will drive after more than & glass of wine; we do not touch spirits especially if they are not from an optic:

[Chancer]

[quote user="Hoddy"]

Going back to Tony’s original case, I think it’s worth considering designating one adult to remain alcohol free so that they can make rational decisions and drive if necessary. A friend of mine belongs to a car club which meets ocasionally  in the summer for caravanning/ camping weekends. On one occasion they were having their usual Saturday night party when a stray dog turned up out of the blue and savaged one of the children. Because she was pregnant my friend was the only one capable of taking the child to hospital.

Hoddy[/quote]

Well you learn something every day! I never knew that if you drank when pregnant you would be OK to drive, or at least pass the alcotest [6]

I once took the car keys away from a very drunk and very pregnant woman who also had two young children in her car, she was in front of me in the petrol station and could hardly stand up, the manager called the police and .put the keys in the time lock safe.

[Quillan]

[quote user="newbiee"]
How many of you would feel comfortable refusing to give friends / acquaintances more than one or two alcoholic drinks when they are visiting your home for a social event and you know they are driving?  I would do it (if I spotted it), but it would certainly feel odd.

[/quote]

I look at it this way. If I have people round drinking who have arrived by car I tell them the truth. I tell them that we very regularly have radar guns and "controls" near our house (straight bit of road with big layby, excellent for the police). I am not going to serve them any more. If they help themselves then its nothing to do with me and be it on their own head should they get caught or worse have an accident. If we are not full I also offer them a room for the night should they wish to carry on drinking. The rest is up to them, they have no excuses and I have a clear conscience. We are, after all, (allegedly) adults and nobody is forcing the booze down their necks. Its a bummer for me when we go out as Mrs Q does not drive so I throw a bottle of Coke in the car before we leave. Being the only driver, living semi rural and having a business means it just not worth the risk having one drink plus I know if I 'get the taste' I will have another so I start as I mean to go on and drink nothing but the coke I bought with me.

I have no sympathy for anyone loosing their licence for D&D even if they are a very small percentage over. They know the rules, they took the risk and they get what they deserve. Its unfortunate in the case that started this thread that other people paid the price for another's gross stupidity. Mind you if they knew he was drunk why get in the car with him, why did the wife let the kids go in the car? I am sure the majority of mothers here would have told their husband/partner that if he drives home in such a condition it will be without them and the kids.

The one thing that might be a reason for people taking risks more in France is the cost of Taxi's, well at least where we live. It would cost us 40 Euros there and back in to town which is only 4km away. In the UK I regularly used black cabs if I went out after work for a drink and left the car in the carpark and retrieved it the next day. I am lucky on rugby days as my mates wife comes and picks us up so I can sink a few. If we go further a field we take it in turns to drive, the driver gets a free meal and does not drink.

[Ejc]

It has surprized us somewhat when we have been out to friends and I have either requested soft drinks or water as I'm driving home or we have opted to walk home & collect the car the next day, because we will not D&D, to be thought "odd". But then we also had friends round, the wife didn't drink all evening (she can drive), while hubby did rather like a fish, & to our horror it was hubby that drove home, & our suggestions that they swapped were met with outright refusals. We would have stopped serving him wine way earlier had we known he was driving.

[BIG MAC]

I have every sympathy with Tony. I cannot imagine what I would be like in thise circumstances, probably running a million 'what if scenarios' on loop in my brain.

It's easy to get carried away on when on holiday, this post stands as a harrowing but salutory lesson for those who may be tempted.

It's funny because when we are over there we do like a sherry or two but don't really drink until sundown whenever that may be and all vehicles tucked up in bed.

Those poor kids.....the thought just leaves me so very sad.

[Scooby]

It is possible to prevent someone who is very drunk from driving away from your house in that condition.  We have some old friends staying with us (ironically while we were in France).  In hindsight it was a big mistake as their relationship was breaking down but we thought it would help and that it would be good for their son to play with our two boys (change of atmosphere and all that).  On the first evening they both got very drunk (read a couple of bottles of wine each followed by brandy).  A fight ensued (glasses thrown and broken etc) and she grabbed her car keys adamant she was driving back to the UK.  Our children took their little boy out of the way to distract him.  Her husband was no use whatsoever - in his (very vocally expressed opinion) it was good riddance and he hoped she killed herself en route to Paris.  I literally had a physical fight with her to get the car keys.  In the meantime, my OH had pulled his car across the driveway to block her exit.  Ok he was probably over the limit and so technically not in a fit state to turn the ignition, but the two things together prevented what could have been a tragedy...not just for my friend but for other drivers in her path.

I agree with the comments on here re the french at fetes, out for meals etc.  Those near to us never seem to bother.  The only 'care' they take is to go by the 'safe' roads (i.e. the back lanes where there are less likely to be gendarmes.)

[Deby]

Such a shocking post to read. When we first moved to France, all the Brits we knew drank and drove, especially after their long lunches.  A very well-educated colleague came into the office swaying one day bemoaning he had scratched the side of his car.  I was incensed! I did point out to him that he'd had a few which led him to give off to me on the virtues of life in France and as I only had been their 5 minutes shouldnt comment!!! As a mother of a small child I shut him up completely when I pointed this out!

We attended a very celubrious French wedding, the father of the groom was an Advocat and his wife a society lady, the wedding was held in the most beautiful chateau where you could stay over.  My husband and I stumbled back to our room at around 3am in the morning only to see the very drunken advocat and his wife getting into their vehicle!! They lived and so did other road users that evening.

I am very careful now driving in France after the Marche Nocturnales/Summer Fetes etc and dont like driving at night because every other car is boozed up with its occupants.  Its very sad and true, we do have the gendarmes patrolling but they are open to a bit of bribery.

Tony - I am glad you posted as a reminder to all of us the perils of drinking and driving.

[Chrissie]

I, too, hear frequent references to the large amounts of booze consumed by Brits (and in some cases it's true of course) but most people I know do the sensible thing and designate someone to limit their drinking and be the driver.  What does shock me is the attitude stated aloud by many French friends after a heavy lunch that "it's only wine - not REAL alcohol"....![blink]   I don't think they ever read the labels and see the strength of most wines today.

Chrissie (81)

[Chancer]

On the very quiet and generally very straight roman route nationals linking the main towns in my area and on the even quieter route deparmentals I would be tempted to drive home at night after a fête or other gathering having drunk just a little over the limit.

The reason that I dont and would never consider it is that after midnight the roads are populated by drunk and stoned ado's sporting "A" plates whose lack of sense of danger is only surpassed by their lack of driving skills, I am an ex race driver and I can say hand on heart that my awareness and adrenaline levels are higher when I do have to take to the roads in the wee small hours than ever when I was competing.

I like to read the local papers but it saddens me every week to see the pointless deaths, only just recently a drunken driver pulled out into the path of a motard in the early afternoon, this time miraculously the motorcyclist escaped serious injury but the car driver was killed.