IRL: drink driving limit to be reduced

[corkguykev]

Drink driving limit to be reduced

Tuesday, 23 October 2007
New anti-drink and drug driving initiatives are to be included in the Road Safety Strategy to be introduced later this week by the Taoiseach.
A reduced drink driving limit will be introduced, but it has not been decided by how much.
The Road Safety Authority is currently looking at the matter and is expected to make a recommenation to the Minister for Transport in the coming weeks.


Ireland's current legal limit of 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood or urine is the second highest in Europe.
The new Road Safety Strategy also includes rehabilitation courses for repeat drink driving offenders and roadside drug tests in the form of field impairment tests.

From...

RTÉ News: Drink driving limit to be reduced


By all accounts on the news, the drink driving limit will be reduced to 50mg/100ml in the new year.

For the past few years here, random breath testing has come into effect. This means that the Gardaí (police) here can pull over anyone at random with no reason for suspicion etc, and breath test them. Failing to provide a breath test is also an offence but the problem for many people is the fact that you can do all the right things the night you go out.

You can get a taxi/lift etc to and from the pub/club and comply with the law to the best of your abilities but should you have to drive somewhere the following day, you may run into a DUI checkpoint where every driver is tested and you could be caught then .

Lowering the limit increases what was already a risk to someone heading to work the next morning even if they had a drink at home the night before and had no intention of drink driving.

[lugnuts]

so how does that compare to our .08 BAC?

[corkguykev]

so how does that compare to our .08 BAC?

It is the same as your .08 BAC right now but it will be .05 here in the new year and possibly lower when this new change comes into effect.

[languy99]

from what I know their old limit (80mg/100ml) is just like it is here (.08&#37 if I did my conversion right.

kind of funny but in there countries there is a zero tolerance:

Zero tolerance, (It is illegal to have any alcohol in your blood while driving in these countries).

• [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania"]Romania[/ame]
• [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia"]Saudi Arabia[/ame]
• [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovakia"]Slovakia[/ame]
• [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Emirates"]United Arab Emirates[/ame]
• [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil"]Brazil[/ame]
• [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh"]Bangladesh[/ame]
• [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_Republic"]Czech Republic[/ame]

[lugnuts]

wow that's going to be strict.

[erickonphoenix]

In urban areas it's not too bad, cuz you can get around with public transportation pretty easy. Sux in the burbs where you can't get anywhere without driving. But also, Yes. They bust a lot of people driving to work drunk around here and we don't have random DUI checks, you've still got to have probably cause to initiate the stop down here.

Of course Texas is so liberal in regards to drunk driving they won't even have you blow if you appear to be in control of your faculties. A friend of mine was a designated driver for her bachelorette party and got pulled over for a warrant on her plate. They didn't want to tow her vehicle so they gave a sobriety test to the girls on board and let the least drunk one take the wheel.

AND then of course there was my ridiculous incident when I was waiting for a cab outside a bar after they closed and a local PD came up and said "You need to leave the premises sir" so I said, "I've had too much to drink so I'm waiting for a cab". The officer told me to step up, he gave me a quick eye check with his flashlight, had me recite the alphabet to G then said "Your fine, just go straight home"

Gotta love Texas LEO's

[stealthJamal]

from what I know their old limit (80mg/100ml) is just like it is here (.08%) if I did my conversion right.

kind of funny but in there countries there is a zero tolerance:

Zero tolerance, (It is illegal to have any alcohol in your blood while driving in these countries).

• Romania
• Saudi Arabia
• Slovakia
• United Arab Emirates
• Brazil
• Bangladesh
• Czech Republic

That sucks. How are you supposed to have fun while driving without a little alcohol in your blood?

[corkguykev]

Like I mentioned previously, the biggest problem for law abiding citizens here is the morning after issue.

You can be driving along and doing nothing wrong whatsoever but if you run into one of these checkpoints after having a drink or 2 the night before and you can still get nailed.

AFAIK, these kinds of random stops/breath testing would not be allowed in the US due to the fact that it is an infringement of constitutional rights there but over here in what is becoming (fast) a police state, we seem to have had so many changes in the past few years (that we have had no choice in the matter over) that it seems that we have forgotten the meaning of democracy .

I am not against drink driving laws. However I am sick of hearing on the news about single car accidents where a vehicle left the road and smashed into a wall or over a ditch etc, in the early hours of the morning during weekend times. This will not stop that but I'm sure that plenty of lesser offenders will be caught out badly by this new change .

[erickonphoenix]

from what I know their old limit (80mg/100ml) is just like it is here (.08%) if I did my conversion right.

kind of funny but in there countries there is a zero tolerance:

Zero tolerance, (It is illegal to have any alcohol in your blood while driving in these countries).

• Romania
• Saudi Arabia
• Slovakia
• United Arab Emirates
• Brazil
• Bangladesh
• Czech Republic

That sucks. How are you supposed to have fun while driving without a little alcohol in your blood?

You can still off-road drunk in Germany. That's legal. And from what I hear the Krauts love off-roading. Euro-necks.

[corkguykev]

In urban areas it's not too bad, cuz you can get around with public transportation pretty easy. Sux in the burbs where you can't get anywhere without driving. But also, Yes. They bust a lot of people driving to work drunk around here and we don't have random DUI checks, you've still got to have probably cause to initiate the stop down here.

Of course Texas is so liberal in regards to drunk driving they won't even have you blow if you appear to be in control of your faculties. A friend of mine was a designated driver for her bachelorette party and got pulled over for a warrant on her plate. They didn't want to tow her vehicle so they gave a sobriety test to the girls on board and let the least drunk one take the wheel.

AND then of course there was my ridiculous incident when I was waiting for a cab outside a bar after they closed and a local PD came up and said "You need to leave the premises sir" so I said, "I've had too much to drink so I'm waiting for a cab". The officer told me to step up, he gave me a quick eye check with his flashlight, had me recite the alphabet to G then said "Your fine, just go straight home"

Gotta love Texas LEO's

It can depend greatly on the LEO that you meet here too but when they set up a roadside breath test, nobody is getting by untested . Not a bad thing by night but the next morning thing is unfair IMO and especially if you did get taxis etc the previous night.

I have no problem with the LEOs here getting dangerous drunks off the road. That is a service to us all.

It used to be liberal here but the need to be seen to do something about road deaths has overcome common sense IMO .