DunRoaminTheUK

I don't drink and drive....

TrickyTree

Certainly seems to be a very high amount of drink drivers here in Brisbane. Last time I came to an RBT there were already about a dozen cars in the compound (only been there 20 minutes) and this was on a Monday night.

Drink driving certainly does not hold the same stigma it does in the UK I think the punishments need to be much higher.

DunRoaminTheUK

Oh, I totally agree. I've often seen the careless, reckless, irresponsible, selfish and downright f*****g ignorant drivers that you refer to, on my travels. Not being able to keep the car between two white lines spaced wide enough to accommodate a landing 747 is normally quite a giveaway, I find.....

These people aren't worth a pot of piss in my opinion and the quicker they find a slippery coastal road Z-bend the better...

Pomster

I drove in UK for about 15 years, and was never breathalysed once.
In 6 years here, I have been tested about 8 times (once going in a remote part of WA and again coming back 3 minutes later with my carton of milk!).

Last time I was breath tested was on my way to the hospital on my due date...pretty obvious I was not drinking but the young policeman and I had a nice chat about babies!

Hutch

It's definitely more socially acceptable here. The attitude to it is similar to the UK in about the mid-'80s before the onslaught of the "Don't drink and drive" campaigns really started. It was a fairly slow process, but it's up there with the really serious crimes now. I was at a party on Sunday - couple on a five acre block had invited various folks round for a pig roast. I watched most of the men drink constantly from the moment they arrived. Then they all loaded up their wives and kids in the car and drove home. I'm certainly not a perfect driver, I have a heavy right foot, but I never drink and drive - haven't done it ever. Didn't do it in the UK, wouldn't do it here. I've been breath-tested three times since we got here and I've seen RBT blocks about another five times, but wasn't stopped. They are trying, but until it has the same stigma that it does in the UK, the cops are on a hiding to nothing.

Kapri

You are right about the stigma.
Back in the 70's my Dad would happily drink all night then drive back from where ever with me in the back (no seatbelt).
Last year at a do I went to, one of the girls was really drunk and intending to drive home. Someone took her keys off her and we all had a whip round for a cab home. Most people were genuinely shocked that she would even consider it.

turtletom

Well just got back from work and was sat looking through the window onto the road when all of a sudden a car went past with 2 tradies in (1 driving and 1 in the passenger seat) and at that precise moment they went past my vision the driver took a glug of a bottle of tooheys.

soapy©

yeh, i see this every friday mostly
something i have never seen in the uk, not saying that it doesnt go on because it will. i just havent seen it.
since i moved here i have seen it hundreds of times

turtletom

Yeah same here! Its absolutley shocking.

Vanessa

Definitely worse here. I am amazed at how many of my friends will drink and drive and that was never the case in the UK. I am not saying it doesn't happen there, just that I don't know anyone would would do it, particularly not in a built up area.

themerlin

Talking on your mobile phone is just as dangerous as drink driving.
How many of you do that.........

TrickyTree

Not me........nobody calls me the bloody phone never rings I dont know why I have it!

But your right.......again another huge problem in Brisbane!

JackTheLad

Well, strictly speaking, drinking a can or a bottle of Tooheys whilst driving isn't illegal. Provided its only his first (or maybe second at worst) of the day.

But it does make you think that it very probably isn't their first or second or third or....

James516

It's far more prevalent in the UK than in Oz. In Oz, the limit is lower (0.05 comapred to 0.08 in UK), there are random breath tests, there is far more social stigma (you really don't hear of banned drivers continuing to drive in Oz - happens all the time in UK), there are loads more traffic cops (in UK almost all traffic enforcement is moving to cameras, which don't pick up DDs).

Drinking establishments in Oz make it easier to keep under the limit - loads of light and mid-strength 'Gold' beer that simply doesn't exist in UK. Nightclubs and pubs have coin-operated 'test your breath' machines - I've never seen one in the UK.

Finally, Oz people tend to drink heavily at house parties and stay the night, whereas in the UK people do that at pubs, and then have to get home somehow...

turtletom

Thats funny because i remember a group of people who all went and tested their alcohol level just to see whos the highest and then still drive home! You know just for a laugh.