Topic: Drunk Driving

[Ghandi]

I firmly stand against drunk driving. As such, it was tough tonight to take a stand against my roommate who was going to drive drunk. I wanted to get home, which was about 3 miles away from where I was, but I decided to take the walk instead of ride with him. Needless to say, he was pissed and it was as shitty walk, but I definitely deem it worth it. If I am going to stand for something, by God I will stick with it.

Anyways, this doesn't have a particular point other than the fact that if you are a college student and you believe in something like this, even if it goes against your friends, and they hate you for it, stick with it and fucking stick to your beliefs. I had a lot of friends that told me good job tonight for not riding with him, and I consider them true friends. I don't listen to the assholes that tell me otherwise.

[TheOtherBelmont]

That's cool, you did the right thing, if your friend can't get over it, he's a dumb ass.

[shock]

I love drinking, but drunk driving is the most fucked up idea EVER.  Every time I hear someone tell me a drunk driving story, I go into lecture mode.

[Xessive]

You go Ghandi!

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, it's bad stuff and not worth the risk.  It's always better to understand the dangers involved and how easy it would be to screw up your own life or someone else's, even if you didn't get into an accident.  You'd have hell even if you just got pulled over.  It's just bad news all around.

[Antares]

http://www.ramride.colostate.edu/

Saved me more than a few times. Best of all, it was free.

[Cobra951]

I would consider it more a matter of degrees than pure black & white, except for the law.  I would be doing a friend a favor by talking him out of driving right after having two or more drinks.  The risk of ending up in jail is too great.  Even if you're driving straight and some asshole hits you, if you test above the legal limit, you're in deep shit.

Real drunk driving, though, I can't tolerate either.  If someone is shitfaced, he has no business behind the wheel.  If he hurts someone because of it, he should die hanging by his balls.

I guess my general opinion on the subject is that punishment should fit the crime.  The legal limit is very low in some places, and under no circumstances should you lose your liberty for driving while still in possession of your faculties.

[Ghandi]

Hmmm, didn't remember this post until I saw it again. 

Now it's time for the shitty walk back to my car. Joy.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, I don't know about all the laws, sometimes.  I think the science of this stuff is shit science a lot of times and they want to scare people as much as they can so that they keep as many people from *really* drunk driving as possible.  But the loss of motor function and reaction time differs greatly between people.  Even when outdrinking other people in my group, I never get funny where I'm falling over or can't do things properly.  Obviously there's a limit, but I would say that I could safely drive after a couple of drinks simply because I don't even feel anything after those couple of drinks.  It takes an awful lot to get me into a state where I lose any significant degree of motor function or reaction time.

[gpw11]

Drunk driving is probably one of the stupider things people do a lot out of pure stupidity, laziness, or just being cheap.
 I was once driving and thought I was pretty much fine (like fine to drive, not fine to pass a breathalyser). Anyways, I was the only person in my car and I have no idea what happened, but I ended up hitting a pole going about 80 km/h.  The worst part (which ironically was also what saved my ass) was that there were three friends of mine walking down the street from another party about 10 feet from the pole I hit.  Total coincidence.  One ran over cranked the door open, realized it was me and was like "you got to get the fuck out of here before you get arrested."  The car still ran, but not well.  Luckily it was all downhill to my house.  Through a series of miraculous events we ended up getting it in my back driveway without seeing a cop (apparently as they were running after my car which was slowly gaining momentum, one turned onto the street I was coasting down and just barely missed seeing me). 

My car was fucked and I almost killed three friends, but it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.  I lucked out and got away with it, my buddies weren't pissed at all, and well...the car was kind of a POS. I had a velocity related concussion and ended up with PCS for 6-8 months. It was a good smack in the face.  Drinking and driving is convenient, but it's also probably the most selfishly dangerous thing you can do. I'm not a saint, I'll still occasionally drive after 2 or 3 beers over an hour or so, but I'll never drive if I'm the least bit buzzed.

[Ghandi]

Holy cow, that car is messed up. I'm glad you didn't get seriously hurt, you definitely lucked out on that one. Sometimes it takes stupid things like that for you to realize where your priorities are in life.

[iPPi]

You did the right thing.  Drinking and driving is a very stupid thing to do.