Confessions

[Sheldonrs]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

I had a helluva dream last night. I dreamt I had the world's tightest hat stuck on my head...

Only fair. I had the worlds biggest dick in my ass.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by Sheldonrs

Only fair. I had the worlds biggest dick in my ass.

That is the only time in recorded history the phrase "biggest dick" has been used in reference to The Gravdigr...(on second thought, maybe not...)

Thank you.

[ZenGum]

Blue, I don't like drink driving, but this time I'm calling you a lazy bugger for taking the car on a 1/4 mile round trip. You could have walked - well, staggered - that far.

[xoxoxoBruce]

.08 is stupid.

[Pico and ME]

Not to the lives it has saved, it isn't. Year after year the percentage of fatalities due to drunk driving have steadily decreased.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Bullshit, .08 hasn't saved any more lives than .1 would have. All it's done is ruined peoples lives and raised money.

[Pico and ME]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Bullshit, .08 hasn't saved any more lives than .1 would have...

Yes, it has. Since it came about in '02, the reduction in deaths has increased at a greater ratio than the years prior.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Pico and ME

Yes, it has. Since it came about in '02, the reduction in deaths has increased at a greater ratio than the years prior.

No, it wasn't until 2005 that all states had .08. You're attributing the reduction of deaths which happened for many reasons, to the reduction in BAC. Also the way they now gather statistics, if a sober driver hits a drunk on a bicycle, it's an alcohol related death.

Driving drunk is bad, no question about it, but the drunks on the road are well over .1 BAC. The social drinker who is not impaired, is not a menace, is being harassed and financially raped, by this .08 bullshit. This is not an attack on drunk drivers, it's a thinly disguised attack on drinking at all.

[Lamplighter]

Aren't the DUII laws are based on greater than 0.08
and/or field sobiety tests by a LEO ?

link


The effects of alcohol intoxication are greatly influenced by individual variations among users. Some users may become intoxicated at a much lower Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) level than is shown.

0.02-0.03 BAC: No loss of coordination, slight euphoria and loss of shyness. Depressant effects are not apparent. Mildly relaxed and maybe a little lightheaded.

0.04-0.06 BAC: Feeling of well-being, relaxation, lower inhibitions, sensation of warmth. Euphoria. Some minor impairment of reasoning and memory, lowering of caution. Your behavior may become exaggerated and emotions intensified (Good emotions are better, bad emotions are worse)

0.07-0.09 BAC: Slight impairment of balance, speech, vision, reaction time, and hearing. Euphoria. Judgment and self-control are reduced, and caution, reason and memory are impaired, .08 is legally impaired and it is illegal to drive at this level. You will probably believe that you are functioning better than you really are.

0.10-0.125 BAC: Significant impairment of motor coordination and loss of good judgment. Speech may be slurred; balance, vision, reaction time and hearing will be impaired. Euphoria.

P.S., The author in this link makes a (dumb) common mistake when setting ranges.
0.02-0.03
.................<--------- what happened to 0.031 to 0.040 ?
0.04-0.06

[Pico and ME]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

No, it wasn't until 2005 that all states had .08. You're attributing the reduction of deaths which happened for many reasons, to the reduction in BAC. Also the way they now gather statistics, if a sober driver hits a drunk on a bicycle, it's an alcohol related death.

Driving drunk is bad, no question about it, but the drunks on the road are well over .1 BAC. The social drinker who is not impaired, is not a menace, is being harassed and financially raped, by this .08 bullshit. This is not an attack on drunk drivers, it's a thinly disguised attack on drinking at all.

The rates have still gone done even when accounting for the date and impaired driver. I cant for the life of me find the link I got the chart from, but this site posts similar statistics)

Its true that serial DUI offenders have much higher bacs and are responsible for nearly 50% of the fatalities, however, my husband and I are both much less inclined to drink if we are going to drive because of this limit, and I'm sure we are not alone in that regard. Its had an impact.

[blue]

agreed, it does nothing to keep the really bad repeat offenders off the road, and although you can't measure stupid, it's way aboove .08
yes I could have walked, I should have, hooch is heavy tho

[Undertoad]

What they need is a heavyweight license. A friend of mine got booked at .10, but he's a serious alcoholic and a part-time bartender at Philly's Rum Bar. .10 is probably his walking around level. He should have a license for .13 or something.

[Undertoad]

My friend said he basically had a choice between paying 3 grand for a lawyer or going to jail for a weekend. He was poor so he chose B.

[Clodfobble]

For me it's not about the death/crash statistics--I've seen video of a dozen people who believed they would be fine at .08, took a driving test on a closed course, drank until they blew exactly .08, and then took the test again. They were all impaired to some degree (despite being familiar with the course the second go-round,) and most to the degree that they accidentally "hit" something on the course.

Some people may be fine at .08. But many definitely are not. Unless we work out a program involving UT's heavyweight/lightweight boozer license designation, the state has to go with the safest common denominator.

[Undertoad]

It's a good graph Pico but it does not isolate .08's effect. For example it doesn't take into account a big drop in drinking overall, a major cultural shift. Especially down is binge drinking in inexperienced drivers, the most dangerous kind:



In fact, given these trends, along with improved alcohol education, you would expect your graph to have an even larger drop-off.

however, my husband and I are both much less inclined to drink if we are going to drive because of this limit, and I'm sure we are not alone in that regard. Its had an impact.

Yeah, but if you did drink and drive, you would have pulled it off.

You and your husband considered the possibilities and decided not to drink. Two decades ago you would have decided which of you was in better condition to drive, and then you would have driven home; and nothing would have happened. You would have known you were impaired, it would be unusual to you, and you would have driven carefully. In fact if you knew you were actually not in condition to drive, you wouldn't have driven.

Alcoholics do not have this choice. I'm suggesting that most really serious, fatal accidents do not happen at .08, but are alcoholics who are at .15 and up.

At .08 you are three seconds slower, and you rear-end somebody at a red light, but you're going 10 MPH because you've hit the brakes, just too late.

At .13 you miss the red light entirely and T-bone somebody in the intersection. It sucks hard, but nobody (usually) dies.

But at .27 you enter the wrong ramp of the highway, go the wrong way at 50 MPH and hit someone head-on.

Because you're an alcoholic, you fail to make the right choice even if you are a PA state trooper and accident investigator who had a similar crash four months prior.

Quigg, a trooper who had overseen DUI checkpoints on Philadelphia area highways, was placed on restricted duty following a DUI-related crash on Route 422 in Montgomery County in December 2009.

additional story

Bonus karma: the trooper killed himself, but not his 23 year old victim. He was not wearing a seatbelt... she was.