Pulaski

At the risk of sounding like a certain someone, they were completely out of order stopping you in a parking lot! There are stop signs for emerging from a Lowes parking lot locally, which I also can't fathom; why on earth is there a stop sign for emerging from private property on to the road? ...... A short distance away there is a restaurant where the main entrance/exit to the parking lot is the fourth leg of a crossroads, but the traffic lights are for a T junction, so to emerge from the parking lot you can just pull into the junction any time you feel like it. If it is good enough for the restaurant I often wonder why the lights are there for the other directions.

GeoffM

I don't know why they do these unscientific tests. Take a breathalyser with them and get a proper indication. I would struggle to do the alphabet backwards when sober and Monster'ed up.

California Beer Festivals have a DD thing. My nearest bar is 7 miles away apparently. Fortunately wife drives and (when not driving) rarely drinks anyway. Even if I have one longneck she gets the keys - it's just not worth it. Having several beers and "feeling alright" is just ridiculous.

GeoffM

I would imagine that the six feet in front of the stop sign is a public highway (or whatever it's called) so you can be "done".

markonline1

Yes there is. It's because at a Give Way sign in the UK, people give way. Yield signs in the US seem to mean sweet FA to people.

Pulaski

Most Stop signs/lines in these parts are about 15-20ft back from the edge of the road you are entering, such that if you actually stop at the sign/line you are too far back to see if it is safe to emerge!

Bob

A mate of mine up in Maine got his DUI for being in control of his car....he'd gotten a blanket out of the boot and was taking a kip in his car when the cop knocked on the window and he got done as he was in the drivers seat...this was about 3 in the morning. Amusing thing is, he only lived a mile up the road and could have walked home but he drove to the bar from work for a works do.

He did one of those classes to reduce the penalty to a one month loss of license and during the class one person quit the class because they were to drunk to say their own name in the roll call and opted to take the full hit and another person was doing the class for the 10th time

Bob

I'd not be able to do that sober....then again, I've a wrecked tendon and ligament in both ankles so can't stand still on either without looking like a drunken elephant and the alphabet backwards is a chore.

It's all daft though, it's why they have a breathtest so why they don't just use the thing :/

Bob

Around here, you're meant to stop at the sign, the line and then at the junction if they don't all line up...it's how they get you, with so many opportunities to not stop. Quite ridiculous.

hungryhorace

It's a 4th Amendment issue as I understand it. Cops need probable cause to breathalyse you. They don't have it until you fail their silly sobriety tests.

Personally, I would refuse those stupid tests. I am an intelligent human being, I will not be treated like a performing animal. If you suspect me of being DD, you are free to breathalyse me.

Mrs Danvers

So is taking a kip in the backseat kosher? I've done that once too but it was years ago and in the UK.

Pulaski

I think they're prohibited from using the brethalyzer without "probable cause", hence the field sobriety tests. ..... I couldn't recite the alphabet backwards if my life depended on it.

hungryhorace

You can be prosecuted for the same offence in England & Wales remember.

Pulaski

Same in the UK. Do not let the police find you drunk while sitting in the driving seat. It will not end well.

Bob

But they need probably cause to pull you over in the first place, so it's all a bit moot.

If you failed to stop/speed/cross a line, they've got cause to pull you over, so they ought to be able to test you.

All very daft.

Then again, some states can't have cops parked with their lights off for speed/drunk traps as it's considered entrapment. Daft again.

GeoffM

Yeah, plenty around here like that - including one on the driving test route. Luckily I'd brushed up on such situations before the test, and primed her indoors on the same (and the route).

Ah ok. So instead of doing a physically invasive breathalyser test they are allowed to do a mentally invasive test instead. Yeah, makes complete sense.

Entirely agree.