Responsibility for drunk drivers

[Pickles]

If you watch French TV, you will have seen the public information slots amongst the adverts regarding the culpability of people who allow others, whom they know to be drunk, take the wheel.

The judiciary are supposed to be tightening up on this, and according to Midi Libre, a precedent has been set in a case with the following details:

The owner of the car was drunk and thrown out of a disco.

His friend drove his car to take himself home (despite neither of them having a licence) with the owner as a passenger, and then he allowed the still-drunk owner to drive himself home. En route, the owner ran over and killed an 18-year old student.

The owner was sentenced to 6 years in prison. His friend has just been sentenced to one year, six months of which are suspended.

The bereaved family now want to take the disco's owners to court for throwing him out.

[NormanH]

We both live in the same region, heavily involved in the wine business, and where drunk driving is an accepted fact of life.

This case is a step towards 'impliquer les personnes qui ont laissé conduire des personnes ivres'.

I think that the idea of blaming the disco is going a bit far, but questions do need to be asked about bars discos and restaurants situated out in the country

They are an invitation to take risks, so some degree of responsibility from them would be welcome.

[Patf]

There was a tragic case reported on here a few years ago.

[Pickles]

[quote user="Patf"]There was a tragic case reported on here a few years ago.

[/quote]

Indeed, and I was partly thinking about what one could do in the circumstances of a determined and belligerent drunken friend or acquaintance. Call the Gendarmes?

[Théière]

All drug pushers are the same.  They really should take the government to court as they profit from the sale of the drug which the pushers plied the driver with.  Doesn't make them much different to a south american drug setup when you look into it.

[YCCMB]

I confess, as a starting point to this comment, that I don't drink. Or rather, I drink very little, very occasionally. That's not a question of some sort of anti-drinking stance I hold, but more to do with the fact that alcohol makes me feel sick very quickly. As that's not a feeling I enjoy, I avoid it.

What surprises me among my acquaintances and friends in France is the number who, whilst wanting to enjoy the pleasures of a social life, get quite upset (to the point of refusing to go somewhere) if it means they have to drive and therefore abstain from drinking. Of course, I admire the fact that they see a need to abstain rather than drink and drive, but to take it to the extreme of not going out rather than not drink....?

I didn't notice, when smoking bans became the order of the day, a mass of smokers opting not to leave home rather than not smoke.

Is drinking really such an integral part of having a good time that people can't have the latter without the former?

I must admit, I'm often everyone's friend on a night out, as I'm always happy and capable of being a designated driver, but I don't really understand what's so difficult about staying sober.

[Théière]

I will answer that after the soul revival shindig this weekend in Bognor. As I now feel different to years ago when it was an integral part of going out and loosening up.

Don't you think it can be sometimes more amusing to hear what people are saying when they are drunk though?

[YCCMB]

Yes...and no. For one thing, some people appear to believe that alcohol makes them more amusing. It doesn't always. For another, it seems to give a lot of people alzheimers. I was at a neighbours' party around Christmas time, here in the UK. Our immediate neighbours were also there, fresh (or not, depending on your point of view) from a long birthday lunch. Bear in mind that the time was now early evening. My neighbour engaged me in conversation about three times, on each occasion trying to have exactly the same conversation with me. She seemed to be having her own personal Groundhog Day. When we reached round 4, she mentioned that she was a little bit drunk, as if I hadn't noticed, and then popped off to get another drink. Why?

Lest anyone think I'm a killjoy, here's an illustration of some of the other dangers of getting drunk. One of my oldest friends, who, like me, met her husband at University, so the 4 of us have known one another for umptyteen years, called me a couple of years ago to tell me that her husband had just spent several weeks in hospital. He "likes a drink" and had come home from a night out (she was already in bed) and decided to have a last cigarette before turning in. Unable to find his lighter, he decided to light his fag off the gas hob. As he was undertaking this task, fairly straightforward for a sober person, he managed to set his shirt alight. He's only recently finished having the skin grafts.

[NormanH]

I can only compare impressions since I haven't lived in the Uk for a long time, but I feel that over there Drunk Driving is no longer acceptable, and isn't something to boast about.

Here even 'normal' people drink an amount that clearly puts them over the limit, and think nothing of driving.  The possibility of being breathalysed is just seen as an irritating possibility and there is a permis blanc for those who need it for work, and sans permis cars for those who have lost it and shouldn't be on the road.

In other words the social attitudes are very different.

[YCCMB]

What's worse, and here I speak from real experience, is that even the police seem totally relaxed about it.

A couple of years ago, I had been spending the evening with a friend, and, having had a glass of wine with an early supper, I was driving home. About 2-3 Km, a journey which took me through the centre of our village. As I drove around the square, a gendarme jumped out of a bush and waved me down. Closely followed by another gendarme.I stepped out of the car, which freaked both of them out a bit, as my French-registered car is RHD.(or, if you prefer, rhd).

After a confused moment where dumb and dumber checked to ensure that there wasn't a vertically-challenged person sitting on the other side of the car behind the invisible steering wheel, they invited me to blow into a breathalyser. It was 9 pm on a Wednesday evening, and the local bar was shut, so they must have been at a loose end. I obligingly blew into the machine, having actually no idea of the legal limit for driving in France, as I really have no need to know, generally speaking. Before I blew, the Gendarme asked me if I had been drinking, and I replied that yes, I had just had a glass of wine within the last half hour. He took the reading, showed me, said  "Nickel" and invited me to continue on my way.

It was only when I got home and checked the limit versus the reading that I realised that my reading was exactly ON the limit for drink-driving. I doubt that I would have provided such a high reading half an hour later, as I'd really only had the one glass, and very recently, so no doubt the alcohol would soon have dissipated and the reading gone down, but I was shocked not only at what had happened, but that I'd been waved cheerily on my way without the Gendarme giving me a hard time about being bang on the limit. I very much doubt that I would have got away without a bit of a talking-to had the incident taken place in the UK.

[dave21478]

Drink driving is endemic here - EVERYONE does it in the area where I live - even the police. Yep, when I had the resto, the gendarmes booked a big table one lunchtime for some kind of reunion meal, and all turned up in their posh uniforms. I wouldnt say they got "blitzed", but they would all have been significantly over the limit. A few aperos each, plenty of wine with the meal and then several eau de vie shots afterwards. They all got in their cars and drove off home or to work or whatever.

And yes, if one of them had a crash on the way home, I would quite possibly have found MYSELF in a world of shit for letting them drive off. But then...try telling a bunch of the local cowbo....err...law enforcement officers that you will not serve them alcohol with their meal as you fear they may drive drunk afterwards......

Not just the cozzers....in the local village I can name 5 or 6 people who operate in a semi-pissed state all day, every day and since there is no bus service and the one and only taxi is driven by a drunkard, any drinking anywhere will mean a drive home for those participating.

Conversely, regarding the cops, when the local nightclub is open in the summer, they stake out one of the roads leading away from the village so clubbers leaving have a 50-50 chance initialy till word gets back to the club where the cops are and everyone modifies their route accordingly. The gendarmes rake in plenty of drunks to top up their coff......err....set a strict example.