Macca67

Aaahhh! Diamond White. Those were the days.

Ridski

*bows*

meauxna

lol, this one was good too, but you'd shot your karma wad already.

chartreuse

It's OK, I karma'd him for it.

It was good.

Steerpike

I wonder what the stats are if normalized to miles driven, rather than population? I would guess that people here drive more than 3x the number of miles than folks in UK, so a 3x increase in deaths may not be so surprising.

Kaffy Mintcake

You know, I don't have any stats to back this up, but I wonder if younger Americans are less likely to drive drunk.

My husband is six years older than I am, and talks about how if you were pulled over as a teenager and had alcohol, the cops would just confiscate it and send you home. (in your car, with you driving!) No penalty beyond that.

He said that once MADD came around things changed dramatically. Now when I went to high school, drinking was taken pretty seriously, and like you, my friends and I don't drive drunk. There's always a DD.

I will say that I saw two men over the weekend (in their 50's I'd guess) who were bombed out of their mind and promptly got behind the wheel. I should have called the police on them.

Okachickima

Actually, the graph does show the number of fatalities per billion kilometers driven. The U. K. is listed as 7.7 and the U. S. at 9.4 (the footnote says 9.07). This would place the U. S. in the mid-range of western European countries. I imagine the most significant difference is the rural road fatality figure. The site says that most U. S. fatalities occur on rural roads. How big a percentage of the total road mileage in the U. K. can be classified as rural and what proportion of total miles are driven on them? Also, does anyone have any idea why Belgium's rate is about twice that of other western European countries? It makes me wonder about the general reliability of the figures.

cluedweasel

I had a glass of beer in Bruges once with an alcohol content of 16%

Stockton

I once spent a day trying to ride my bike into a headwind before eventually grinding to a halt in Ghent. (Yeah I know, who goes on a cycling holiday in a sceneryless country like Belgium?). Anyway, I was absolutely wiped so decided a quick beer would hit the spot before finding somewhere for dinner.

There was just me and the barman and he asked me if I wanted a light or a dark beer. "I dunno" I said. "Dark I suppose." I didn't know that in Belgium, "dark" is a euphemism for "So strong, it would knock out an elephant." It came in a goldfish bowl sized glass and the fumes alone were enough to give me a buzz. It took about an hour to drink the thing and by then I'd decided that I could probably skip dinner and just go for a lie down.

Fortunately, my hotel wasn't far away because all the way back, the walls of each building I passed leapt out and punched me. Apparently I made it home because I woke up the next morning fully dressed, but half off the bed.

If the Belgians drive after drinking that stuff then it's a wonder there are any left.

Juswus

Diamond White..omg...that almost hurts to remember!!!

I also remember the cheap imitation you could buy at "Iceland" that only cost a couple of quid for a huge bottle.

I'm suprised I have any stomach lining left!

Bob

most of the accidents are side swipes and usually at speed....people don't realise "yeild" means stop if you can't make it because no one stops and the crazy exit/entrance ramps interweave everywhere over here.

Steerpike

Funny you should mention that! I was out for dinner in some fancy restaurant the other night and they didn't have any 'recognizable' beers on the menu, just exotic imports I had never heard of, so I ordered a Belgian one at random. It tasted good. The next day, I had a lousy hangover - inconsistent with a couple of beers. I looked up the beer online, and it had some ridiculous alcohol content!

Personally I seek out lower-alcohol beers these days so I can drink more.

I hate restaurants that only carry 'fancy' beers - I appreciate having a choice of beers, but carry some of the basics for those of us who really know what we want!

chartreuse

Yup, those trappist beers will do that.

You're not alone, though. Back in England, the big thing last year was "Becks Vier" - supposed to taste the same as regular Becks, but 4% ABV instead of 5%.

Down here, I tend to drink Tecate. 4.5% and, unlike Bud, Coors etc, you can actually taste it.

Marmalade

God, what a great story. I am peeing myself laughing at that one

val2val

It's easy to forget just how big America is compared to the UK. If you drink drive in the UK, the risk of passing a police car is always pretty high. But in the U.S, outside of the big cities, there is just so much road (or open highway as they like to call it). A lot of locals still drive to the local bar, have three or four beers, and then drive the short distance home.