Small Wonder Why Drunks Kill So Many On Our Roads

fmdog44

fmdog44

Well-known Member
Location
Houston, Texas
With the 4th of July coming next week a radio show is advertising a party at a beer joint saying "Free shots and beer in buckets." Yeah, that will be great for everyone on the road. When you think of it getting a little drunk seems to be part of every holiday. Then there is New Years Eve.
 

Yeah. We cut short our visits on these kind of holidays to stay out of traffic. On the 4th, we are always at someone's house and we leave to drive home while they go see the fireworks. We're driving home while most fireworks shows are on, so we miss the drunks. New Years, we go only a mile or two from home and we're home before it turns midnight. And we don't have more than a glass of wine or a couple of beers on any of these occasions. So far, so good.
 
I'm sorry to report that I didn't become responsible I just got old.

These days I stay off the roads and leave them to the young and the bulletproof.

“Be good... and if you can't be good, be careful.”― Ron Byron
 

Everyone wants the profit....! Here locally...all summer long there are street-fairs & festivals. And for everyone of them , a huge deal is made about the beer-booths that will be available, tail-gating at football games, etc & so-on. Do they really think all those attending will hire a Uber/Lyft/Taxi ? Have a designated driver ? ....yeah right.
 
We recently went to a local brewery with several family members. I was delighted to see a large sign on the wall advising that those who identify themselves as designated drivers will be served free non-alcoholic beverages. It was also prominently printed on the drink menu.

Drunk driving is much less socially acceptable than it was when we were growing up, thank goodness, and thank MADD for their tireless work on that front. Most of us likely remember when parties hosted by the generation above us were winding down for the night, someone would inevitably say to those about to leave, "Stay a bit longer and have one last one for the road!"

Good grief!
 
My friends and I drove drunk numerous times back in the day. Mostly as underage teenagers.

It was stupid and wrong and we were very lucky to have gotten away with it without anything seriously bad happening.

The worst that ever happened was one my friends took out someone's mailbox on Starkey Road with is mom's 1960 Ford Galaxy on the way home after we had been doing shots at my house while my mom was at work. He got away clean with that one. No doubt the owner of the mailbox was pissed the next morning.
 
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As I lost my dear sister to a drunk driver last summer, this is a very sore point for me.

I've heard people say, "I'm a better driver drunk than most people sober." Uh, no. They aren't.

And then there's always, "I'm not really drunk, I'm just 'relaxed'". That few seconds it takes a "buzzed" driver to respond to a traffic situation could very well make the difference between stopping in time and hitting someone.

If I'm driving, I'm not drinking. Period. I know that I'm "impaired" long before I'm legally "drunk". It doesn't take much to make me "buzzed".
 
jujube said:
As I lost my dear sister to a drunk driver last summer, this is a very sore point for me.

I've heard people say, "I'm a better driver drunk than most people sober." Uh, no. They aren't.

And then there's always, "I'm not really drunk, I'm just 'relaxed'". That few seconds it takes a "buzzed" driver to respond to a traffic situation could very well make the difference between stopping in time and hitting someone.

If I'm driving, I'm not drinking. Period. I know that I'm "impaired" long before I'm legally "drunk". It doesn't take much to make me "buzzed".
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I agree with everything you said, particularly the part about being impaired before I'd be anywhere near the legal limit.

My condolences on the terrible loss of your dear sister, and through such preventable, tragic circumstances.
 
So many people are killed by drunks because we tolerate drunk driving - light sentences, early release of repeat offenders, revolving-door justice system. We don't take it for the crime that it is. Princess Dianna & Ted Kennedy's girlfriend would agree.
 
My wife does not drink, when we go out she takes her driver's license with.

Heard of a guy who had just been retired,for about 6 months, he and his wife went out for dinner and he had a couple of drinks and got stopped on his way home. He failed the breath test and was convicted of DUI..Lost most of his savings to lawyer and court costs and had to go out and go back to work!!
 
Ken N Tx said:
My wife does not drink, when we go out she takes her driver's license with.

Heard of a guy who had just been retired,for about 6 months, he and his wife went out for dinner and he had a couple of drinks and got stopped on his way home. He failed the breath test and was convicted of DUI..Lost most of his savings to lawyer and court costs and had to go out and go back to work!!
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Here in Pennsylvania, getting DUI and going to court is about a $10,000.00 payout to the defendant’s lawyer and fine. Not to mention a possible weekend in the County jail.

If you think drinking and driving or driving buzzed is cool, go along with a policeman when he has to go to a parent’s home at 2 or 3 in morning to tell them that one of their kids won’t be coming home anymore. That’s absolutely the worse job any police officer has to do.
 
Cops can't park on the street when the bars close and the drunks are stumbling to their cars to drive home and arrest them for drunk driving because it's bad for town businesses.

What is there to do? We can't arrest most of the bar's customers. They'll go out of business.

In CT anyway, it's up to the bars owner to make sure a customer who appears to have had enough, is cut off. Not served. Often, they are fooled. Too many incidents at one bar could mean loss of a liquor license since the owner can't run it within the law, but that rarely happens unless there is a shooting or too many brawls.

I would love to see it, just once, when a bunch of police cars are lined up, ready to pull over the drunks exiting the bar, What would they do? Sit on the curb until sober? LOL.

A thousand years ago Publick Houses (bars) served until a man fell over. He either slept in the street or his horse, having more brains than its owner, got him home. Not on a high speed freeway.
 
Cops in Houston just nailed a bartender and a woman's friends at the bar for serving her and for her friends not stopping her from throwing them down. She killed a mother and daughter so why not prosecute the ad people if you are going to prosecute here friends? Her friends were how many people at the bar versus a radio daily broadcast saying "Go get hammered!" But not "don't drive drunk."
 
fmdog44 said:
With the 4th of July coming next week a radio show is advertising a party at a beer joint saying "Free shots and beer in buckets." Yeah, that will be great for everyone on the road. When you think of it getting a little drunk seems to be part of every holiday. Then there is New Years Eve.
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Not everyone who drinks drives, too. I know I don't drive while intoxicated. But for those who do "Don't do it!"
 
I still remember the time that I pulled a driver over for suspicion of DUI of alcohol or other substance. As I sat in my car and ran his tag, which we had to do back in the day, he began to exit his vehicle and I said to him over my speaker to stay in the car. He wasn’t listening, so I exited my car and walked up to him with the intention of cuffing him and putting him in the back seat of my car.

When I got to him, he took a swing at me. Of course, he wouldn’t have been able to hit me, even if I would have been chained to a pole. At that point, I took him down and cuffed him. At the hospital, his BAC was 1.9. He spent the rest of the night in lockup.

Some people do some stupid things when they are DUI.
 
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Here is a story of an accident that I aided in the investigation. Seven people were in two cars; five died. Speed and alcohol were later listed as the main cause of the accident. When I arrived at the scene, my first thought was that no one could have survived this accident. Two people did survive. I don't know how.

I had just come on duty at 10:00 p.m. I was assigned to turnpike patrol, but then this accident occurred and they needed several Troopers, fire and ambulance services on the scene. I was the second Trooper on the scene. It was indeed a horrific accident. The Mustang GT was basically cut in half. This was the worse accident that I investigated in my 38 years with the PSP. (If you can see the picture with the 3 Troopers standing with their backs to the camera, I'm the third one on the right end.)

Accident Report
 
I read somewhere that 26% of accidents on our roads were caused by drunk-drivers...........so that means that 74% of accidents on our roads were caused by people who don't drink.......therefore drunks must be the safest drivers...........:D
 
This is one reason many police departments set up check points around holidays like the 4th of July. Sadly drinking and driving is tolerated/enabled by promotions like this. But the participants should bare the blunt of the blame for driving drunk, not a promoter.

I know softball weekend warrior types who boast about their after game drinking on the field. You think you are risk only around the holidays think again in any area where there is softball, golf, tennis etc. I was surprised but apparently many a golf or tennis club are breeding grounds for drug use and dealing by active members. It's not just the non athlete private clubs, organizations, bars etc
 
Holiday weekends are Always a good time to stay off the roads. Between the heavy traffic, and the goofy drivers, the chances of having a wreck are substantially increased. For decades, drunks have been the biggest hazard on the roads, but in recent years, Cell Phone Addicts have replaced the drunks as being the number one hazard.
 

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