750,000 Idiotic British Motorists Will Drink And Drive This Christmas
You’d think people would have got the message by now. Drinking and driving is just about the most idiotic thing you could ever do in a car. From a selfish point of view, you’re not only putting your own safety at risk, you’re also running the risk of getting caught and having your license taken away. But more importantly, your dumb, selfish actions immediately put the lives of everyone around you at risk. All because you couldn’t be bothered to organise transportation home.
Despite these incredibly valid reasons for not drinking and driving, research by Co-op Insurance suggests that an incredible 18 per cent of British motorists admit they’ll take a chance this Christmas, which would equate to 744,000 drivers. 26 per cent of respondents also expected to drive the morning after a heavy night.
There’s no good reason to drink and drive, but the most popular reasons given for getting behind the wheel while over the limit are infuriating. 28 per cent claim a taxi would be too expensive, 25 per cent would rather drink drive than walk home, while 20 per cent said they’d do it because they’ve done it before and weren’t caught.
The most popular reason for driving drunk, however, is the most face palm-inducing: 31 per cent of respondents said that they’d drive because “it will not harm anyone.” Seriously, how ignorant do you have to be? You know that everyone who’s ever had something bad happen to them has said “it won’t happen to me,” right?
So, it should go without saying, but seriously, if you’re thinking about drinking and driving: DON’T.
Source: Motoring
Comments
Meanwhile I’m that guy who the family and friends recruit as driver…. Which I’m quite happy as I don’t drink… (Saves money for car parts)
Because being a petrolhead is your addiction that doesn’t cause life problems.
It really is worrying that despite all the effort put into educating and stopping people from drink driving, such a large percent will deliberately disregard the law and the lives of any others near them.
Reminds me of a girl I went to middle school with. We went to different high schools, so I learned through the grapevine that she’d killed someone in a drunk driving crash and hospitalized another, been tried as an adult, and been sent off to prison. She either got vehicular homicide or manslaughter. Either way, I doubt she’s out of jail yet.
28% claim a taxi will be too expensive? That’s the one that winds me up the most. People are so stupid sometimes - they won’t think twice about spending £8 on a pint, £15+ on a cocktail, but yet £10 on a taxi at the end of the night?? Oooo, too expensive. Here’s hoping they do get caught, slapped with a sizeable fine. Let’s see if that will put things in to perspective for them.
As for not walking…I always found walking home was a great way of avoiding waking up feeling like death the morning after. 3am walk in the snow is an awesome way of sobering up - if you don’t get lost!
How much is the fine for a DUI over there? It’s $10,000 and possible jail time where I’m living.
£8 a pint? No freaking way!
Whahahahaaa (the following is to be read in a Yorkshire accent, with a nod to Monty Python..)
LUXURY! We used to dream of only have 18% of our drivers drunk here in South Africa…. Where I live 90% of drivers are pist as farts 80% of the time and the reason they do it is because they get away with it! Our traffic department is shocking, they have t’ odd roadblock during festive season, but the rest of the year they do pretty much nothing other than hide behind a speed camera! And if you do get caught, you can either pay a small bribe or take your 50/50 chance that the authorities will lose your blood/alcohol test results.
Sadly I was one… Drove my mates Saxo, Uninsured and Unlicenced… I am ashamed of myself for doing it
and if you live in Amurica, I’m sure that number will look small…
“face palm-inducing” hahahah XD
In Finland routine breath testing without a probable cause is permitted and often practiced. reduces drunk driving quite bit. but almost every day someone will end up getting more than a fine…
The penalty is a fine or jail up to 6 months plus license suspension from 1 month to 5 years. For aggravated, also a prison sentence (60 days to 2 years) is possible, Penalties vary by level of intoxication
I think a lot of people have that one story from when they were younger and they did something they shouldn’t have done. Most people recognize that and will say it was the one and only time to be fair. That said I think this particular survey must have been taken in a local Wetherspoons at 10am on a Monday.
I love my car far too much to ever drink and drive. I set a strict 2 beer limit in the rare chance I’m out without a designated driver. Stay safe folks!
Even after just one beer I’d be unwilling to get behind the wheel
The problem we have here in the uk (atleast in Scotland, im not sure if they changed the england/wales limit), is that they have set the drink drive limit so stupidly low based on no real evidence. In Scotland with the 0.20 (it used to be 0.35) the majority of people cant even have a half pint of medium strength beer without being over the limit. It also means you essentially arnt legally able to drive for the whole day after a heavy night.
All this stupidly low limit does is make people disregard it entirely. With the old limit you could have 1 pint then drive, that was fine for most. With the new “zero tolerance” limit people are drinking more than one pint as they are breaking the law anyway so it doesnt really matter how far over the limit they go, aslong as they dont get caught.