A little while ago we were on motorcycle camping holiday in Norway, two up. (Great time - 6 weeks benefits of being retired). Anyway we leaving the campsite on morning and all motorcyclists going in and out were breathalysed. Fine I blew zero. However they did not test my good lady pillion. Surely a pillion rider can affect the motorcycle far more than a passenger in a car. I believe that she should have been tested as a matter of course - it would have returned a zero result though! I am a retired school teacher and once had to deal with a kid whose sister’s boyfriend was dragged a 100yds down the road by a drunk driver. I believe any driver convicted for being over the limit should have on top on the courts sentence a mandatory suspended 5yr sentence (staying in force for 10yrs) that clicks in if ever they get caught over the limit again, regardless of any extra court sentence for the second offence.
Just out of curiosity, do we know the demographics (particularly the age range) of our community? I'm just wondering whether the large proportion of considered and sensible answers is because most of us fall into the "Been there, done that, got and grown out of the tee-shirt" group... Is there a difference? When I was younger it was my parents; age group who always thought they were fine having one for the road...
No. It's a plot to take to take over more of your liberties. Who drinks zero alcohol beverages? Why not just drink water?
5 year suspension OK. However I would also suggest extending the power that is already available to the boys in blue and that is to immediately (no offender option to pay a fine) crush the vehicle in/on which the offence was committed.
@RBinDevon Yes i agree with you. And i do believe that a second offence the police can confiscate and destroy the vehicle. Might be wrong but sure i read it somewhere.
Figures released for Cumbria Christmas period show a higher number of drug offences than drink. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn40wkpl1g7o Regardless of the breakdown it shows people are willing to completely ignore the dangers rather than stay off the booze for one night or get a lift. One time at the TT, I had a pint of Guinness in Ramsey while we were doing a daily lap and the difference in my riding was so noticeable I never did it again.
@Dawsy Yes i agree. People don't think it can affect their reaction times as much as it does. And on a bike it is life or death. Not saying i am any saint as in my younger day i was an idiot and did have a drink and ride but yes i was an idiot.
We’ve been banging on about the drink drivers but as @Dawsy remijnded us there is also those that partake of illegal drugs. A number of times I have been out on the bike with my boys and they have remarked about the smell of cannabis coming from a vehicle we are following.
Everyone has their own views on this. FWIW, mine are, I never drink any alcohol whist riding a motorcycle, but I do have the odd alcoholic drink and drive home in a car. That's because there's no pub in the village where I live, but I have the odd beer with my son on a Monday tea time in his village which is about 5 miles from where I live. The odd beer being just that.
This is not just drink driving but should also include drug driving. If I wandered around public streets with my guns I could be shot and killed. I could do more harm / loss of life with a car than a gun. Seems mad to me. What I should have said, if a driver is stopped fails a breath test, having already been previously convicted, Immediately taken to police station for a proper test. If this test is failed immediately transported to prison there are then, even if the person refuses a test. Banned for live.
And the girls in blue . I think the proposal to give the police mandatory breath testing powers would be really valuable.
Too right. Norway has that protocol. That is what was happened at the campsite we stayed at that. As we were leaving that morning I was tested - blew 0. I wasn’t tested for drugs but I feel that I should have been. Another camper was returning having driven to a shop for milk etc, Tested and failed. Drinking the previous night,
About last night's drinking. In my former job we had the "8 hours bottle to throttle" rule which was pretty strictly enforced. One of my classmates went to fast jets rather than helicopters and the day after a mess dinner was killed, along with his instructor, when they flew into a mountain. Despite both of them being apparently professional and responsible and sticking to the 8 hour rule, the post-mortem showed they were both still significantly over the drink driving limit... It's a sneaky one, and if you're going to get shipfaced you should be aware that you're likely to be noticeably impaired for a bloody long time afterwards...
Shouldn't that be RAF faced, rather then Ship faced as surely that's the Navy version? Asking for a friend.
Well... actually no! My username gives it away. I was actually Royal Marines but came from the Fleet Air Arm. So Navy
