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geoff

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Sounds a good idea and I'm not against it but I can't help wondering exactly how much effect it would have in practice.

In the first place I think the majority of people pretty well know themselves if they've had too much to drink without a machine to confirm it although it would of course act as a timely reminder and give them pause for thought hopefully.

Secondly, those disposed to heavy drink driving will still likely do it anyway and it will be predominantly this group who are wiping themselves (and others) out, not the marginals and borderline cases.

I wonder too how workable it would be. How would you segregate the drivers from non drivers for instance or is it proposed to bag everyone just in case ?

Somehow I can't see that working too well at closing time with several hundred revellers wanting to get out and get home but not allowed to until they've been bagged. Also who's going to enforce it in the clubs, breathalyser operated turnstyles perhaps ?

Still, if it saves just one life......................

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Either you drink, or you drive - if you are going to drive even one drink is too many. I like to have a few drinks as much as anyone, but if I am driving then it is soft drinks only for me. If I sound like a prude, then so be it.
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From an article in this morning's BBC news it seems that it will only be obligatory for establishments to have breathalyser machines, NOT obligatory for people to be tested. The statement in the article original linked to is contradictory then and presumably should have said testers and NOT tests.

"Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot and I will present a decree to make electronic breathalyser tests obligatory in drinking establishments open until 0200 so that everyone can check their level, their condition upon leaving,"

Maybe something was lost in translation [blink]

 

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  • 1 month later...

We have several friends here, French and British and most of them seem to think drinking and driving is OK.  Back in the Uk the way they really beat it (I know there are some who still do it) was not to make laws or to 'bag' people, it was to make it socially unacceptable.

I fear that here it is still seen as an OK thing to do.  It is up to all of us to tell our friends who drink and drive that is is simply not acceptable.

Drink drivers KILL PEOPLE!  Losing a child is just something no one should ever have to endure.   To lose a child because someone wants to drink and drive is beyond evil.  If you find it embarrasing to tell your friends off picture a child mangled in a car's wheels and try again!

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[quote user="JMB"]Guns never kill people. People kill people with guns.[/quote]

People without guns are less likely to kill than are people with guns.  I know if I had a gun when my Mrs dropped a bottle of 21 year old scotch last week I would have killed her.  Luckily for her all I had was a base ball bat....  She will live[:P]

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[quote user="wiskersnatch"]

Drink drivers KILL PEOPLE!  Losing a child is just something no one should ever have to endure.   To lose a child because someone wants to drink and drive is beyond evil.  If you find it embarrasing to tell your friends off picture a child mangled in a car's wheels and try again! [/quote]

You speak a lot of sense, Wiskers.  My best friend, aged 15, died because of a drunk driver.  35 years on and I'm still angry.

 

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[quote user="Cathy"][quote user="wiskersnatch"]

Drink drivers KILL PEOPLE!  Losing a child is just something no one should ever have to endure.   To lose a child because someone wants to drink and drive is beyond evil.  If you find it embarrasing to tell your friends off picture a child mangled in a car's wheels and try again! [/quote]

You speak a lot of sense, Wiskers.  My best friend, aged 15, died because of a drunk driver.  35 years on and I'm still angry.

 

[/quote]

Don't blame you Cathy.  Take that anger and next time you see a mate getting into a car drunk tell them straight you will phone the police.  I have done this and actually got a thrashing for it but we MUST all do this.

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On the same note as the original post, there's also a move to stop drivers who have drink/drug driving convictions from driving cars not fitted with a starter-inhibiting breath tester.  School buses are to be fitted with these from la rentrée 2009 - read into that what you will.

Steve 

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I'm usually the 'designated driver' when J & I go out socially or for lunch/dinner because I really don't care for alcohol any more because of my medical things, police service and after the accident here two years ago where 4 people, including two 10 years old girls were killed when the driver was over the dd limit (I had to identify the bodies at the scene) it sort of put me off for good.

And if we're out in a 4 some, I always drive.  Fizzy drinks don't do anything for me so I get through inordinate amounts of water, which is fine cos I have to because of my health thing anyway.

For me, it's comon sense.  Get caught, loose your licence ON THE SPOT, three months without a d/licence and being wholly unable to drive, have to jump through all sorts of hoops to get it back and it's not assured that you will and then there's the Tribunal.

No brainer really - but then quite often, the drink drivers are no brainers as well I suppose!!!

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