Don't drink and drive!

[Aristotle Flynn]

This story should act as a warning to anyone who think of getting behind the wheel of the car after having a couple of pints. This girl was lucky - she wasn't actually over the limit - but it was still a humiliating experience.

DON'T DO IT!

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00260/chrissierussell_260895g.jpg

Thursday, December 06, 2007
As I stand at the roadside about to blow into a little plastic tube I start to feel irrationally guilty. Logically I know I haven't done anything wrong, this is just an enactment, a staging of what happens when you're stopped for drink driving, intended to give me an insight into what it feels like to be arrested for the offence.
But from the policeman telling me sternly to turn off my engine and get out of my vehicle, the people gawping at me from their cars as they drive past and my redfaced sense of shame - it all feels very real.

This Christmas many people will be tempted to get into their cars and drive home after drinking at office parties and nights out. Maybe they'll feel perfectly sober and maybe they'll get home safe but some won't.
Already this year there have been 98 deaths on Northern Ireland's roads, 19 of which involved alcohol. That's 19 lives lost because some drivers still think it's alright to get behind a wheel after having a drink.

I'm stopped just outside Downpatrick on a weekday morning after committing a driving offence (pulling out in front of another vehicle). The police have a right to stop drivers for driving erratically, if there's something wrong with the car such as an out-of-date tax disc or broken light or if they've committed a traffic offence like pulling out without signalling. Once stopped, if they suspect drink has been taken, it's the breathalyser.

Although the policemen I speak to have tales of people asleep in lay-bys and drivers three times over the limit, more often there are stories of people who have a little bit more to drink than they mean to, or people driving the morning after a big night out or people chancing a short drive home from the pub.
"There's no one 'type' of people that are caught drink driving and there's no time of day when it's more likely," says Sergeant Lawrence Speer from Roads Policing. "It's something that happens across the board ". My breathalyser test flashes up a red FAIL, my car is locked and Sergeant Speer escorts me into the back to the marked police car.

As I travel to the nearest available police station (which turns out to be Newtownabbey as all custodial suites are taken in Downpatrick) the long journey gives me plenty of time to think about what impact a drink driving offence would have on my life.

No licence means no way of getting to work and having no transport would seriously hinder my ability to do my job. I would be reliant on public transport, which, to where I live in the countryside would be expensive and erratic, and I could kiss my social life goodbye - although I was rapidly losing the taste for drinking. Worse would be the reaction of my family and employers when they found out.

"Quite often we have people blaming us for ruining their lives," says Constable Victor Molyneaux, driving me to the station. "They don't see that they are their own architect of what's happened."

As it goes I'm a well-behaved prisoner. But that's with the luxury of knowing none of this is real. If the tables were turned I've no doubt I would join in the ranks of people who sit in the back of the car crying, begging for the matter to be sorted out some other way, apologising and swearing it would never happen again. None of which would do me any good.

"Once you're caught there is no way back," explains Constable Molyneaux. "For us, it's more difficult when people are genuinely upset but there's nothing we can do."
Of course, people still try and beat the system. Constable Molyneaux tells me about people putting pennies in their mouths as they believe it will absorb the alcohol or chewing gum or drinking from water bottles and then claiming it was spiked with alcohol by police officers. People try and claim they weren't driving, that they've only had the one or they refuse to take the roadside breath test.

But even this is only delaying the inevitable. If police officers suspect a driver to be driving under the influence then he or she is legally obliged to give a sample, if not at the roadside then in the police station.

Refusal to do so is a criminal offence and will result in disqualification, a hefty fine and penalty points. There really is no way to win.
And no matter how drunk I was, I'm sure finding myself in a small, clinical looking room with three police officers and a highly sensitive machine guaranteed to register any alcohol in my system, would definitely sober me up. It's not the results from the roadside breathalyser that are used in court, but the two samples taken by the Lion Intoxilyser in the police station, the lower reading of which is then used in court. I can ask for a solicitor to be there but it's not a request that will delay the test. Even if a staff sergeant isn't available to operate the Intoxilyser, a doctor will be called to take blood or urine sample.

There's nothing physically unpleasant about blowing into the warmed tube of the Intoxilyser but it is tense waiting for the results and I have a horrible feeling of being trapped in an unalterable course of events when all I really want is to be far, far away. I have no one in the room to support me and (without having done anything wrong) I still find the procedure sickening, thinking of what it would be like if it was for real.

My results come back clear, the machine registers no alcohol in my system and I'm free to go. If I'd been over the limit then I would have been bailed to go until my court case when it would have been up to a magistrate to disqualify me, issue penalty points and decide how much I'm fined or whether I should face a custodial sentence.
Of course, the shame of being caught shouldn't be the main deterrent for drink driving. The police officers I speak to have first hand accounts of the carnage and lives ruined by drink driving with one recalling the case of a drunk driver who collided with a 19-year-old girl leaving her paralysed. The adverts we see on TV may be graphic but for some families, the incidents they portray are all too real.

Any amount of alcohol really is too much and if you're stopped for drink driving then it's lucky if you only ruin your own Christmas. The legal limit is essentially meaningless because while one person may be able to drink a pint, have their liver process the alcohol quickly and be fine to drive, another person may not and that's irrespective of gender, age, health, height or weight. The safest amount really is none. I realised this when I was sat in the back of a police car. Hopefully it won't take being in the same position for other drivers to come to the same conclusion.

[Blacksheep]

Right. Thanks for that Mr Flynn.

[Square Ball]

No doubt we have all met people who regale us with stories of driving while under the influence telling us that it doesn't effect their driving ability, these are selfish bastards and in an accident they would be the ones who would walk away uninjured. Plain and simple don't do it.

[Broken_Cross]

Timely post Flynn. Some bastard nearly  wiped out the family lastnight. He came out of a junction and drove up wrong side if main road, other cars stopped and watched in shock as he carried on oblivious.
No doubt local traffic branch were busy tucking into their second or third box of doughnuts.

[pintsofguinness]

I don't understand the article, am I missing something?

She failed the initial test:

My breathalyser test flashes up a red FAIL, my car is locked and Sergeant Speer escorts me into the back to the marked police car.

but yet going to the police station she knew it wasn't real?

As it goes I'm a well-behaved prisoner. But that's with the luxury of knowing none of this is real. If the tables were turned I've no doubt I would join in the ranks of people who sit in the back of the car crying, begging for the matter to be sorted out some other way, apologising and swearing it would never happen again. None of which would do me any good.

Do gooders writing stories like this would drive you to drink!

[Guillem2]

Do gooders writing stories like this would drive you to drink

Just so long as they drive you home again as well. You wouldn't want the bould Flynn on your case.

[mannix]

I would like to know how the gardai would deal with this fella.
He was in his sixties and had a little of a farm where he grew spuds, would dig an asscart load and head to town to sell them on saturday morning, after all were sold he would  tie up the ass and cart in a lane and drink his fill, then drunkenly find the cart and ass where he would lie in and give a roar at the well trained ass who would head for home, sometimes the gate would be closed and jimmy would lie in the cart on the roadside for hours until a neighbour opened it to allow the ass go on his way, other times the gate would be open and the ass would go straight to the hayshed where jimmy would sleep in the cart till morning.Would they charge the ass for travelling without an owner or would they charge jimmy with drunk what?
This fella was well known in ballina and still lives but is past the spud selling phase.

[J70]

I don't understand the article, am I missing something?

She failed the initial test:

My breathalyser test flashes up a red FAIL, my car is locked and Sergeant Speer escorts me into the back to the marked police car.

but yet going to the police station she knew it wasn't real?

As it goes I'm a well-behaved prisoner. But that's with the luxury of knowing none of this is real. If the tables were turned I've no doubt I would join in the ranks of people who sit in the back of the car crying, begging for the matter to be sorted out some other way, apologising and swearing it would never happen again. None of which would do me any good.

Do gooders writing stories like this would drive you to drink!

It was an enactment for her newspaper article.

Fair play to her I say.

[stew]

No doubt we have all met people who regale us with stories of driving while under the influence telling us that it doesn't effect their driving ability, these are selfish bastards and in an accident they would be the ones who would walk away uninjured. Plain and simple don't do it.

I owned a sports bar in Green Bay for four years and I used to,drive home drunk infrequently. I never did so again after I was driving home one night in early december and it was snowing for the first time that season. Anyway I went to turn the car on to an on ramp and the car slid and kept gong straight until I hit a traffic light, I had a big fecker of a car thank God and I hit the traffic light and took the light out of the ground and bare wires were all over the place and I saw the concrete attached to the bottom of the pole.

I blew my front tire on the kerb but somehow managed to get the car off the kerb and on to the road, I then drove home and called the police and told them that the traffic light was hit and that there were live wires hanging out everywhere. They took care of it but i got a visit from the cops the next day and they asked to see our cars, I showed them the cars but not the one that hit the traffic light, I hadnt yet registered it yet as I hadnt had time to get to register it.

I got off with it but I will never again put myself in a position to hurt anyone or anything because I was stupid enough to get impaired. I was also hit by a drunk driver and had head injuries as a result so I should have known better. I bite the bullet and get a taxi  on the odd occasion when I hit the town.

[ONeill]

I'd like to add to Stew's honesty. For about 2-3 years when I was a good bit younger I drove home regularly under the influence. Sometimes it was after all day sessions maybe lasting 6-7 hours. It wasn't just down a country road either - motorways, through city etc. The more you do it the more you think you'll be OK. Then you get a jolt. I was fortunate that mine was verbal rather than physical. A friend's mother was knocked down and killed by a drink driver. You feel extremely small when you hear that and see the suffering. Then you think of the hurt and damage you could cause others for the rest of their lives. You think of how the rest of your life would be. You think of those close to you too, your parents, spouse, children. When you put yourself in those shoes, you'll never consider it again. You're no better than the scum of the earth and when I look back on that I'm extremely ashamed.

One thing though that rarely crosses my mind - driving the morning after. I wonder how long you can leave it - do those jobs you can buy in an off-licence work?

[Lecale2]

I bought one of those testers after a friend got done on his way to work the morning after. It seems to err on the side of caution because there was a couple of Monday mornings when I didn't get to work before noon.

Drinking on a Sunday night is now another of life's pleasures I'm denied.

[pintsofguinness]

The morning after thing is the height of stupidity.
Yes there is an argument that when the alcohol is still in your system it affects your judgement but it hardly affects your judgment anymore than feeling tired or ill would. 

[Lecale2]

Maybe you're right Pints but the Magistrate won't listen.

[pintsofguinness]

A taxi only costs a few quid,

Aye, if you can get one.
It's not the few quid I've a problem with it's the sitting waiting until 4 in the morning.

[J70]

I think I could probably handle the prison part. I couldn't handle living with the shame and the guilt. I don't know how anyone could, but its a sad indictment of society that there are plenty who could live with it just fine.

Those of you who've gotten away without hurting anyone, just be very thankful!