I just don’t understand drinking and driving

Or they find you after you run your car into a telephone pole or a tree.

And these people could just have easily run into another car...

Look at how Firefly frantically struggles to make this thread small bore with individual news stories! Me thinks that she is afraid that the big picture facts do not support her agenda and thus wants to keep us off of that.

dave will wanna go, too...

things were so much better back then.

except for no electricity. or personal transportation that didn't require regular feeding and leave a poop trail...

Sheats had a blood alcohol content that measured at .292 after the wreck

The logical conclusion to your current stance is to eliminate speed limits, and to stop enforcing traffic laws like stop signs and stop lights.

Folks can choose which laws to obey, and which laws to ignore, and everyone else on the road can just put up with it?

The proportion of auto accidents caused by alcohol is actually unknown. Alcohol-related crashes include accidents that are clearly not caused by alcohol; as, for example, when a driver who has been drinking is stopped at a red light and rear-ended by a sober but inattentive driver.

A more accurate estimate comes from fatal crashes. In 1999, 28% of fatally injured drivers had BACs of at least .10. Of course, alcohol was not a cause of some unknown number of these crashes. 2

In 1999, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that 30 percent of all traffic deaths occurred in accidents in which at least one driver or nonoccupant has a BAC of .10 or higher and at least some alcohol was present in 38% of all fatal crashes. 3

This statistic is the basis of assertions that a third or more of all fatal crashes are "caused by alcohol" and the implication that none of these alcohol-related crashes would have occurred if alcohol had not been consumed. However, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety points out that "this is incorrect and misleading because alcohol is only one of several factors that contribute to crashes involving drinking drivers. Furthermore, some fatally injured people in alcohol-related crashes are pedestrians with positive BACs, and these fatalities would occur even if every driver were sober."

The results obtained in this laboratory study demonstrate that major driving-related skills were
impaired by BACs as low as 0.02% on some important measures for a majority of Ss who were a broadly
representative sample of the driving population. The results also indicate that as BACs rise, the percentage
of individuals exhibiting impairment, as well as the magnitude of the impairment, grows. Thus, there is great
consistency in the relationship between the degree of impairment and BAC. Throughout the range of
0.02% - 0.10% BAC there is evidence of significant alcohol-related impairment. These findings are
consistent with the findings from epidemiological crash data, which have been analyzed with contemporary
statistical methods (Allsop, 1966; Hurst, 1973; Zador et al., 2000). Additionally, Ss in the study were
examined only on a declining BAC curve, and the results, therefore, underestimate the magnitude of
impairment expected to occur during alcohol consumption and absorption when BAC is rising.

Scientific data provide clear evidence that important driving skills are impaired at very low BACs.
It falls to society as a whole, and legislative representatives in particular, to assess the costs of and the
remedies for alcohol-impaired driving.

DrewDad wrote:

The logical conclusion to your current stance is to eliminate speed limits, and to stop enforcing traffic laws like stop signs and stop lights.

Folks can choose which laws to obey, and which laws to ignore, and everyone else on the road can just put up with it?

My position on drunk driving is that we have already done enough. No further action is reasonable.

My position is also that the zealots who have taken up this cause will never voluntarily stop pushing for more harsh measure to combat what they believe is a current dreadful state of affairs. They need to be told to sit down and shut up at some point, and I think that point is now.

Lets be very clear that those who want all alcohol impaired drivers off the road for SAFETY! want the BAC limit to be less than .02

The results also indicate that as BACs rise, the percentage
of individuals exhibiting impairment, as well as the magnitude of the impairment, grows. Thus, there is great consistency in the relationship between the degree of impairment and BAC. The results also indicate that as BACs rise, the percentage of individuals exhibiting impairment, as well as the magnitude of the impairment, grows. Thus, there is great consistency in the relationship between the degree of impairment and BAC. Throughout the range of 0.02% - 0.10% BAC there is evidence of significant alcohol-related impairment

This is not OK with me, even .08 is fairly outrageous.

The general standard in Europe is 0.5 mg per ml, but there are wide variances from country to country.

The Blood Alcohol Levels

0.2 mg per ml– Estonia, Malta, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary
0.3 mg per ml - Serbia. For a new drivers (with drivers licence for beginers), profesional drivers, motorcycle drivers, there is zero tolerance
0.2 mg per ml– Norway, Poland, Sweden
0.4 mg per ml- Lithuania
0.5 mg per ml- Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany (Germany is 0.3 if you’re in an accident), Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Serbia/Montenegro, Croatia, Latvia, Macedonia, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Cyprus (North), Switzerland
0.8 mg per ml– UK, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta,
0.2 mg per ml Cyprus (South)
http://www.safetravel.co.uk/europedrinkdrivinglimits.html

They need to be told to sit down and shut up at some point, and I think that point is now.

But, at BAC .08, significant impairment can be demonstrated

We are allowing special interests groups to write our laws

I love it Hawkeye when the studies indicate that driviIng when talking on a cell phone, not texting, is the same as driving with a BAC of .08.

To me such studies does not imply that cell phone conversations are all that dangerous but that .08 levels is too low a set point for DUI.

the lowering of the legal BAC level, and increased enforcement, there has been significant improvement in the problem of drunken driving in the past few decades.

Colorado DUI arrests drop
July 16, 2012

DENVER (AP) — Authorities say increased penalties and enforcement have driven down the number of drunken driving arrests over the past three years.

According to records reviewed by the Denver Post (http://bit.ly/Nr5rCT ), court filings for driving under the influence and driving while ability impaired have dropped by more than 5,000 to just over 26,000 cases.

Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey says more DUI checkpoints on Colorado highways are sending the message that people should not drink and drive.

A first-time offense carries a minimum of two days to a week in jail. Multiple offenses range from a minimum of 10 to 60 days in jail.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Colorado-DUI-arrests-drop-3709912.php