The survey of 2,000 adults for Churchill Motor Insurance showed that overall up to 34 per cent of motorists said they would have drinks containing between two and four units in the belief that they would not break the law.
You know, given that it’s largely true.
Personally, if I’m driving, I don’t drink at all. Body chemistry is a tricky thing, and why take the chance?
@Julia – a wise choice.
For many people it’s a case of…
No drinks – able to drive
A few drinks – able to drive
A few more drinks – know you should not be driving
A few more drinks – convinced you are fine to drive.
I do the same as Julia. If only because drinking within the limit is hardly worth drinking at all.
We have a peculiar system here. The local police have breathalysers, the national police don’t FKs what the Guardia have. The Guardia’s just best avoided*. But it’s the national’s most likely to be manning a stop & check on the main roads. Got pulled up by them in the early hours. I hadn’t been drinking but it was suggested I had. It was also ” suggested” I left the car where it was & get home by other means. Come collect it tomorrow. Funny thing was, I was carrying breathalysers in the car. Half a dozen packets of two. They’re mandatory in France.** Thought it would be cheeky to offer one.
*Very odd people the Guardia. English girl I know, lives up in the mountains, was so drunk driving home she drove off the road, got the car hung up on a rock. This a road with a sheer rock face blasted out of the mountain & a thousand foot unfenced drop the other side. They found her sitting in the road, too drunk to stagger. And took her home. But that was the district where the Guardia chief was in nick for trafficking drugs. On the other hand the same Guardia can be assiduously law enforcing. Even when you haven’t broken any.
** Mandatory. But since it was found out that the sole company accepted as manufacturing conforming breathalysers was owned by a mate of Sarkozy, no one gets prosecuted for not having them. Bloke in Feu Vert, in Hazebrouck, helpfully gave me a box full. He had a slight surplus on his hands.
Well at least the police in France & Spain are vaguely engaged in police work. Not obsessed with what’s been posted on social media.
“A few more drinks – convinced you are fine to drive.”
Years ago I lived in rural Essex for a while. Pretty well everyone leaving the pub was way over the limit. Surprisingly few accidents. Lot more now. Assoles in shiny BMW’s & Audis rocketing round narrow country lanes meeting other assoles in Range Rovers doing the same.
Do the police still do drink driving checks? In all my years driving in Australia and the UK I’ve never been breathalysed by the cops, only private security on a coal mine.
They do crackdowns around Christmas.
They’ll breathalyse you if you have an accident, or give them a good reason to pull you over, or you’ve been driving erractically.
They might also do local crackdowns if there’s been a bit of a spate around a pub or restaurant or whatever.
I was once stopped and breathalysed after leaving work at about 6.30 in the evening. They followed me for about three miles and then waited until I joined the M25 before waving me onto the hard shoulder. Not the safest decision. Apparently I had been wandering about, to which I responded “I’m just avoiding the frickin’ potholes.”.
I’ve been stopped twice in 24 hours. First was near Pau, in France. Standard Gendarme stop. Very attractive & extremely polite Gendarmette asked me to blow in the tube. Absolutely delighted to get a negative reading. Waved me off with “Bon Voyage”.
Second was the following morning by a couple of surly Kent filth. No apparent reason. “Could you open the rear, Sir” (“Sir” delivered with contempt set on 9.). Confronted with people carrier rear laden with booze. “Can you tell me why you have all this?” “If you look at the windscreen you’ll see the ferry boarding pass hanging from the mirror” “Do you have receipts for this?” “Do you read French?” Now they start rooting through it all, opening boxes. Ripping off plastic. “What are you looking for? Maybe I can help” ” Never you mind that” Lose temper at this point. “Look chum, I went through the border check & customs half an hour ago. They were happy. I was happy. So unless you can give me a good reason for detaining me, I’m driving off” So we get 15 minutes of checking tyres, lights, wiper blades etc etc before they reluctantly give up. I’ve no doubt they’d have really liked to have given me a parking ticket.