lapin_windstar

But it doesn't matter - (I believe) the number of drink-drivers that drive over the limit because they've genuinely misjudged their BAC isn't significant, and if any of them cared they could get a keyring tester any time they want. (I believe) most of them either don't know what the limit is or don't care.

POW148

[QUOTE=I dont know how accurate consumer level devices are - but US$10 gets you a breathaliser from eBay... US$60 gets a better one... I'd bet that kind of cost added to car-keys wouldnt break the bank. (ok integrating it into an ignition system requires a bit of enginerring - but its totaly possible)[/QUOTE]

In my work area, we calibrate the police breathalysier's. We regularly get people asking for us to calibrate or repair their own breathalysier that they have purchased. The machines we are asked to look at, as a rule are very cheaply made and become totally inaccurate after a short period of time. Why would you put the risk of losing your licence at best, on the printout of some cheap piece of plastic shipped out of china.

Everyone knows what the legal alcohol limit is for driving. So if you actually care about keeping your licence, if you are going to have a drink, get a cab or have a designated driver who wont drink at all.

Quite easy really

Barney

lee_h

http://www.torbayalcoholservices.nhs...hol/units.html

http://media01.couriermail.com.au/mu...unkareyou.html

DadAgain

Anyone got any stats on this? 'cos I think probably the opposite is true and that the vast majority of drink drivers simply misjudged and do know what the limit is, do care - but werent aware they were still over.

I havent known many people drink drive but EVERY person I've known who has been caught drink driving was caught morning after not realising they were still over the limit.

lapin_windstar

I definitely don't - as I say, I am going off my anecdotal evidence/hunch.

Burbage

The basic problem with drink driving laws is that they are not designed to stop people from drink driving they are designed to punish them if they are caught. In effect the current method of drink drive legislation will never, ever stop people drink driving. There are always going to be people who think they are clever enough to evade police. And intelligence is a rather sad inverse law. The more stupid someone is the cleverer they think they are.

And, of course, they are made even more dangerous because not only are they drunk in charge of a motor vehicle, they are more concerned with evading police check points than they are concerned about avoiding hitting other people on the road. So you could say that the drink drive laws are not only ineffective, but they actually exacerbate the problem.

As for statistics, you could easily prove that 80% of accidents in Australia involve one or both drivers wearing sunglasses. You can even produce the causation and say that because sunglasses block out a lot of the light in the driver's field of view then the driver is not getting a full view of the road, and therefore the sunglasses may have caused some of the accidents. You then make the implication that sunglasses cause accidents. Then using these statistics you can run a campaign and make the wearing of sunglasses illegal and because you've done it so effectively there are going to be some people who believe that people who wear sunglasses while driving are evil morons and should be locked up. You introduce fines. Which is the whole point of the exercise in the first place.

But you still do not stop people wearing sunglasses. And you do not stop people dying in accidents which involve sunglasses. You may in fact cause accidents because the sunglasses wearing driver is so busy trying to avoid being caught that their attention on the road is not everything it should be.

So what does this tell us?

It tells us that the drink drive laws have nothing to do with saving lives and everything to do with collecting fines. The laws also increase commerce for taxi drivers, public transport and lawyers. They allow you to employ more police to try and catch people who drink and drive, which means you can ask for more taxes.

But you haven't stopped people being killed in accidents which involve alcohol.