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6K views 69 replies 18 participants last post by  lee_h 
#1 ·
With it being Christmas I take extra care when driving with all the idiots on the road at the moment.

Being the designated driver (as always) I was driving a friend home late at night (circa 1am).

I was taking it easy in the B3 as the fuel costs have been quite high recently (14mpg day to day).
Driving in the left lane on the dual carriageway (40mph limit) with cruise control on, no other cars about and a roundabout in 500 yards.
I glanced into the rear view mirror and saw some headlights approaching at speed. With about 10 yards to spare he pulls into the right hand lane, then sharply back in front of me messing up my mpg experiment :mad

I don't think too much of it and carry on at 40mph.

I approach the roundabout and there's the van driver in the left lane (left only). I pull up beside him in the middle lane to go straight across the roundabout.
The lights change and I pull up to the 2nd set of red lights, I look in the wing mirror & he's trying to make me move over, no sorry, you were in the wrong lane so you can slow down and pull in behind me.
He brakes and pulls up in the lane to my right, rolls his window down & starts shouting abuse at me & revving his engine, I told him to get in the correct lane through my closed window, I can't be bothered to have an argument at 1am. Again the lights turn to green & I follow the lane to the exit, again the van driver tries to cut into my lane. I have nowhere to go, by now I've had enough of this bloke. I carry on at the speed limit of 30mph until there's space for me to pull over to let him pass me.

He doesn't pass me, he just sits 2 feet from my rear bumper for the next ½ mile. I'm now approaching another roundabout, this time there's a car in front of me.
2 lanes, one for going left, the other for straight ahead. The van suddenly pulls into the wrong side of the road and looks as though he's going to overtake us both by going around the roundabout the wrong way :jaw-dropping
He has second thoughts and pulls back in, though a bit too late, he mounts the kerb, hits a lit bollard and a lamp post at 10mph! The other car in front carries on as do I, though my friend is now on the phone to the police.

So I carry on with my journey and I'm now travelling at 70mph on the dual carriageway, guess who over takes me! The van! So we've now got his numberplate and passed it onto the police.

An hour later my friend calls me saying the police found him & pulled him over, needless to say he was over the limit while driving his work van (a national newspaper).


So all in all a good night, one idiot loses his licence & I got 31mpg out of the Alpina :thumbsup

Hope you all had a good Christmas :)
 
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#6 ·
Any amount of OH and driving should be illegal. That way, if people even have 1/2 a glass and drive, they'll know they are doing an illegal thing. So many people get injured or killed innocently thanks to idiots like that van driver. The government does a lot to catch or slow down speeding, but they should put an equal amount of effort into stopping and catching drunk/drugged drivers.
 
#7 ·
Not being funny but adults an mature people like myself can have a pint and be perfectly safe to drive. Don't make the whole world suffer for the minority that get hammered then drive.

It will be a sad day when I can't go out and have a pint with a nice meal incase I get pulled over...
 
#10 ·
I have no sympathy with drink-drivers. I grew up in Northern Ireland, the police were busy with "other things" and the motorist wasn't of that much interest to them. Most of my friends used to drink and drive, many of them eventually lost their licences, one killed an off-duty Police woman while drink driving, now he's in one of those special hotels with the bars on the windows and you don't bend over to pick up the soap in the shower!

I'm not sure whether drink or drugged driving is a bigger issue these days, for that matter, how do mental health, senility, prescription drugs, smoking, having the cold or a flu, eating a sandwich, drinking a soft drink, smoking, screaming kids, using hands free mobile, sat-nav, the radio/music, having an argument with your girlfriend, boss, child, parent all affect driving standards and our safety? I don't go for the zero tollerance on drink driving, I don't believe that you shouldn't be able to enjoy a pint but I'm also never sure how much you can drink and be safely below the limit, Is it more or less than a pint?
 
#12 ·
I think that legal drugs are as big a problem. I read the other day that 40% of the population are on prescription tranquillisers, this is only going to get worse with the stress of debt and unemployment. How many of them are driving round in a daze. Doctors should be forced to tell DVLA.
People over 70 should be retested just to make sure they're not blind or senile.
Drivers should be limited to 100 BHP per tonne and banned from motorways for first year or take a much more stringent second test.
 
#18 ·
Don't know about automatically losing your license is the law as my friend got caught drink driving , not loads over but over the limit and he got a fine 6 points and had to attend rehab, if he did not attend rehab he would of got a 6 month ban, needless to say he chose rehab
 
#19 ·
There are people on this forum who make modifications to their cars which negatively affect the handling and safety of their vehicles, welded diffs, cars lowered to the point that there is no suspension, Euro look wheel/tyre combinations, they drive them and we as a forum support them. Then there are the people who continue to drive with the ABS or Airbag light on, tyres below or at the legal limit (still compromising handling in the wet), worn suspension parts, worn out wiper blades, even incorrectly inflated tyres, plus all the other stuff a car would fail an MOT on..... the list goes on. These people all pose a danger to other road users and pedestrians but for some reason it seems to be "Socially Acceptable", funnily enough just as Drink Driving was back in the 60/70's, I wonder will we ever get to the point where none of these will be "Socially Acceptable."
I probably buy and sell 8-10 cars a year (I suffer from a rare condition called "Car Bulemia"), probably 80% of those cars have a safety related condition, dealer bought cars are by no means an exception, I always put it right, but it's an indication of what's on the road.
So when do we stop having double standards and take the licences off people driving around in dangerous cars as well, after all they can pose a similar threat to life as drink-driving, perhaps we could introduce a scheme where if your car failed an MOT on a safety related issue you could surrender your licence there and then, just for driving it to the MOT station!
Don't get me wrong, drink-driving is a big no-no, but we allow and accept that people will pose a similar threat by driving cars that are not safe and we do nothing about it!
 
#21 ·
What makes u think it would change anything? Every one knows that drink driving is illegal but they still do it so it doesn't matter if the limit is 1unit or 0, people will still drink drive. All that will change is innocent people like us who are mature enough to have a single pint with a meal will suffer.. I often go for a meal somewhere other than my town so walking or a taxi is out of the question when I can drive.

People like this are the reason we are treat like babies in this poxy country.
 
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#23 ·
Because people have 1 drink, then think it's okay to have another one, (especially with the alcoholics) by the end of it, they are too drunk to drive but still do it. If we did have a 0 limit, chances are that most won't drive to the pub or even have a drink. And the chances of drink driving will be eliminated. Yes, and drunk/drugged drivers is one of the reason why people die innocently on our roads.
 
#24 ·
Well if some one is a known alcoholic then they should not be allowed to drive. It's peoples choice if they have more than the allowed amount of alcohol, if some one is going to drink drive then they are going to regardless of the rules. Loads of innocent people die every day on the roads for many other reasons, It's a part of life, next you will be saying you want to ban cars.

Everything you do in life carries a certain amount of risk, if you want to have a life with minimal risks then stay indoors.
 
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#25 ·
I know it's part of life, but don't you want to reduce the deaths on our roads? And no, I won't be saying that because cars are not responsible for the deaths. It's people who drive them and the things they do.

I'm sure I not only speak for myself when I say this but I just want a life for my family and I, that we can live long without dying unnecessarily by some idiot who doesn't obey the law or think it's fine to be intoxicated while being in charge of a motor vehicle or weapon, which ever way you look at it. Yes driving does carry a risk, but that risk can be and should be reduced.
 
#26 ·
This method of reducing risk is just a lazy and knee jerk reaction that is unfair on the majority of the population. Iv had this happen at work and it's very annoying... Being an engineer means that i used to have some nice perks to the job (break times and where we clocked in an out) but 1 person started taking the piss, rather than sort out the individual the perks were taken from all of us to try and prevent that 1 person from taking the piss any more. After all this, that 1 person has still found a way to carry on doing as he was whilst the rest of us are paying for his mistake...

I dont want my privileges to be taken away because a minority of people cant follow the rules. Rather than put a complete ban on everyone having a drink why not seriously up the penalty for drink driving? Don't just ban people because that doesnt prevent them from being able to just jump back in a car, give them a prison sentence. People may think twice about it if they know they will be going to jail for a few months if they are caught.

The sort of people that drink and drive are the sort of people that don't care about their licence but I'm sure 99% of the population care about their freedom.
 
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#27 ·
The problem you face is even 1 drink can effect some people In a way that would effect there driving capability.

I regular go out places and have a pint with meal, I don't see anything wrong with that. Also in regards to getting taxis everywhere, loads of places would close down if they was a 0% alcohol intake in the same way that loads of places have since the smoking ban and supermarkets selling cheap booze.

Just because a certain minority of people are dicks and do drive over the limit why should the sensible people suffer.

Also as mentioned above about wanting to live a longer life etc without having to worry about stuff like this, I think you will find there are a lot more careless drivers out there than drink drivers, and even if it was made illegal people would still do it the same way people drive with no insurance, tax, license etc
 
#30 ·
:lol
 
#31 ·
If that's how some of y'all think, then the government might as well allow 99% of the population to carry 1 knife and 1 gun where-ever they go. I'm sure knife/gun crime will still stay the same.........Are you kidding? It will definitely increase!! It's the same thing with drinking and driving. Or maybe they should also allow people to do a limited amount of drugs and drive. Having any amount of OH or drugs will affect your driving in a negative way. Then again, some of you probably haven't been affect by a drunk driver.
 
#41 ·
I think the limit is fine, it is very rare, well infact, I have never heard of anyone who is under the limit causing serious accidents that can be attributed the fact they have had two pints.
If there were countless accidents where people had been a touch under the limit I'm sure people with more knowledge than us would be re-evaluating the situation.
IMO it's pointless to specualte about what the limit should or should not be without proper facts and figures, because it is exactly that speculation.
 
#49 ·
Dez it's people like you that are turning this country into a shit hole with it's over the top views on health and safety! I'm leaving this thread now but for god sake I pray that u or some one like u never ends up in a position to make a change in this country. Chill out, grow up, get ur head out of ur own arse and leave us normal people alone.

I don't care for any keyboard warrior comments, if u want to see me to debate this is person u are more than welcome.

Have fun trying to destroy what little freedoms we have.
 
#52 ·
I'm not trying to do "change this country into a shit hole", Daler69. And my head is not in my arse. My views are shared by a lot of people. It's not just only me. And I'm not trying to destroy what little freedoms you have.
 
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