Luke

Not sure???? Barman told me tonight its only 1.pint....

BuRR

Depends really on how well your body can take the alcohol.

I'd say no drink is worth a driving licence, nor the conscience of having someone's injury or death on your hands.

Miles

Politically correct crowd won't like this, for the *average* man one pint is fine, one and a half is still ok-ish (however over the space of an hour you'll be ok), two pints is on the borderline, 3+ is out. However, everyone processes alcohol differently and it is best not to take any chances. It's either someone's life or your life (either one: LIFE or livelihood/life).

yoza

Dont bother....not worth it
get yer bitch to drive an get tw4ted

HunterB

No more than a pint and a half but, if you get stopped, you'll be crocheting socks with your bum on the car seat waiting for the breathalyser result. Better to leave the booze behind the bar if you're getting behind the wheel. Apart from then knowing that you're safe, everyone else will be that bit safer too ....

fast bloke

so who thinks a zero limit on drinking and driving would be perfectly acceptable? I bet there are as many 1 pint accidents as speed related accidents, but because the politicians like to have a jar or two with lunch they daren't put a complete ban on it.

ChrisB

I'd like to see that FB. Rules out the guessing game completely.

Luke

I am happy to stay well within the Limit. Have had to many friends mess up Drinking ( And they have no excuses)and driving. Just thought "1 .pint! bloody hell... If I had had more than 2.pints in less then 2 hours I would never even think of driving. I only drink about 5.pints a month!!

carl

But impossible to enforce as some medicines, mouthwash, etc. contain alcohol.

fast bloke

Carl - you are supposed to spit the mouthwash out You would need to drink about 3 bottles to get over the (blood test)limit. Maybe a visit to the dentist would be in order instead

Tiggs

you need to drink that much now but what if the law was 0?

how long would some stay in the system after last night?

Tiggs

carl

...particularly with a breath test. It would be somewhat annoying to have to go to the station for a blood test every time some mouthwash was detected in your breath.

PS: Yes, I did mean 'impossible to enforce if the legal limit was zero'

[Edited by carl - 27/05/2002 12:13:26]

SWRTWannabe

Imagine the government saying "you mustn't drive over a speed limit, but we're not telling you what it is". Driving with alcohol in your system is exactly the same - we have no way of knowing the level of alcohol in our system.

Some years ago, a distant relative lost his licence because he was still over the limit the morning after drinking - he had done the sensible thing and taken a taxi for the night out (and it hadn't been a late night either), but didn't realise that come the morning he was still over the limit - despite feeling fine.

carl

LOL at SWRTWannabe. I can just imagine the guidelines:
"If you press the accelerator for around 2-3 seconds you are unlikely to be over the speed limit. To be on the safe side, we recommend not pressing the accelerator at all."

Nathan L

Carl,

When drinking alcohol the residue in the mouth only lasts for a period of about 10-15 minutes. When using mouth wash or sprays the mouth alcohol is far weaker and lasts only a few minutes.

When stopped at the roadside for a breath test you will be asked

1."Have you in the last twenty minutes consumed any alcohol"?
2."Have you in the last five minutes smoked a cigarette"?
Most Police Officers will also ask
3."Have you used any mouth wash or sprays"?

If you hav then they will postpone the test for the relevant time.

So really it would not be impossible to have 0 limit.

Nathan..

carl

Have you seen how much alcohol is in Night Nurse (I think it's about 24% by volume, and the 'measure' size is around the same as a double of spirits in a pub)? And, although it may have changed these days, many years ago Gripe Water was around 99% alc. by vol. Mind you, that's not intended for adults...

Chelsie-Bun

Yoza

Is it not time you men drove us women about, and for the name Bitch,
Well its Acceptable now because we know what it really means.

Beautiful Intelligent That Causes Hardons

chel xxx

Toerag

Be careful with the '2 pints is OK' rule, as it depends on the strength of the beer. Some beers are 3.7%, others are 8% ABV. I wish they'd state what a pint is on the '21 units a week is OK' leaflets you see in the doctors. [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]
I say don't drink at all.

Chris T

Trouble with a zero limit is - how long to wait before you can drive again. no one individual could possibly know if all the alcohol had left the blood stream.

This would just further criminalise a law abiding majority. whilst doing nothing to improve road safety - also it would make a conviction for drink driving far more socially acceptable becasue the numbers would go up dramatically.

Waste of time - imho - concentrate on the things that will make a difference to road safety - like driving tests, better road surfaces and greater segragation of different road users (pedestrians especially)

(btw I drink two pints over an hour then have a soft drink then go home)

ChrisB

I was just coming back to add my thoughts on the morning after but you folks had already thought of it.

I suppose a zero limit wouldn't stop the harden DDs who you read about in the news where they have 10 pints every night and drive.

logiclee

I have never driven with more than a pint and a half but I do not drink at all when driving now as I was shaken up about six years ago.

I had eaten normaly all day and called for a drink on the way home with some friends. I had one pint of Fosters and a Fosters shandy so in theory a pint and a half. Fosters is around 4% I think. The time scale for consuming the drinks was over an hour and a half.

Got pulled and was asked if I'd been drinking, I said yes and told him what I had consumed and was happy to take the breatherliser.
I failed!!!! it had been over 40 minutes from my last drink.

I was arrested and taken to the police station where I was given a breath test on their big machine which came in just under. I was released with a stern warning!

I wouldn't even risk a pint and drive its just not worth it.

Lee

yoza

FOA Chelseabun,
Just for the record I always drive there,I like to do my bit,not totally selfish you know.

Jerome

It takes 1 hour per unit (2 hours per pint of normal strength beer) for alcohol to be gone from your system - from when you stop drinking.

So a session down the pub of 10 pints (finishing at 11pm) would mean you weren't clear of alcohol until 7pm the next day. There was a case a while back of a guy who drank so much on a Saturday night, he was still over the limit when breathalysed on the Monday morning!

Nothing can speed up the 2 hours per pint either.

bluto22b

I've found that I can drink eight pints and not be over the limit. We are talking water here arn't we ?......Blutes

SCOOBERATORS

Its simple if you love your car (hows it said on the jerry springer show)

DONT EVEN GO THERE BUDDY

Chelsie-Bun

YOZA

well well really, why am i not surprised, something to do with you can drink and she can not.

Really Yoza I WOULD say you where selfish... let her drive you there and you drive back



chel xxx

skiddusmarkus

I give it an hour per pint plus 12 hours if it's a big session.This is for driving the next day,if I'm out in the car I only drink lemonade as when I got pulled for speeding the first thing the copper did was breathalize me and I'd just left a pub(only drank pop though luckily).If I still don't feel 100% even after a day,I won't drive as I rely on my license for my job.

Vate

This is not a game people.
Who cares if every hour 1 unit is out of your system?
Driving? Don't bother drinking. Only an addict would crave 1 beer rather than giving it a miss for the night. Out on it. Don't drive in the morning the next day as you will almost certainly be over.
I'd be less worried about losing the license and the car and more about killing an innocent as my reactions were 20% down.
Very scary thought

markyp

There is definitely NO definitive answer to this subject. I worked in an office next to a Police station and over a period of about 8 years got to know the Officers very well and drank in the pub with them (also nearby) two or three nights a week. I did not drive to or from work then.

I used to drink about 70 pints a week, and at that time regularly passed a breath test after 7 or 8 pints (taken just out of interest). Over the years I cut my drinking to 8 pints a week for health reasons - and failed after 3 pints. The whole thing is just too inpredictable.

I do not agree with zero tolerance though, due to the minute possibilty that there is residual alcohol content remaining the next morning which would result in a ban; unreasonable.

(Edited due to bad spelling making it look like I had drank too much!)


[Edited by markyp - 5/29/2002 1:34:50 AM]

Sideways

I think I'm right in saying that some peoples body can produce a small amount of alcohol naturally, so a drink nothing would be very difficult to inforce.
Ask John Banks he's a doctor. Lol