Safe Speed Forums

This is the amazon.co.uk synopsis for a forthcoming book by John McVicar called How to Drink and Drive Without Getting Caught...or Causing an Accident published by Artnik.



So the thug McVicar does not encourage or condone drink driving, yet he has apparently written a book giving tips on how to do so! I suppose we shouldn't assume that a 'how-to' guide condones the activity. After all, Alan Titchmarsh doesn't encourage or condone gardening in his book 'How to be a Gardener' does he? Neither does Delia encourage or condone cooking in her book 'How to Cook' does she?

Perhaps this is just the first in a series of motoring books by McVicar?
If so, we can expect:
How to drive without a licence, MOT or insurance without getting caught
How to drive whilst disqualified without getting caught
How to drive an unroadworthy vehicle without getting caught
How to drive excessively fast in a built up area without getting caught
How to intimidate other drivers and get away with road rage

Hmm, sounds very dodgy, and likely to provoke much righteous anger in the tabloid press.

The vast majority of drink-drive offences arise from one of:

(1) Habitual drinking at a particular venue
(2) The driver having a chronic alcohol problem
(3) A one-off drinking session at an event such as a leaving party

Very few, if any. drivers positively enjoy driving over the drink-drive limit and deliberately set out to do so - although anyone with some knowledge of traffic enforcement practices could undoubtedly work out an effective strategy for avoiding detection.

In view of the above such a book is unlikely to encourage law-breaking to a significant degree.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

I've been puzzling about this book for almost two days. My first reaction was pretty close to horror. But I abhor knee jerk reactions.

I'm left wondering if there could possibly be any advice that might be given to habitual drink drivers that might reduce their accident risk.

It's all very well saying: "don't do that", but I think we all have to accept that there are countless thousands of people who are not listening.

If someone came here and told us that he drives drunk, and will continue to do so, what advice could we give? Let's assume for the sake of discussion that we can't identify or shop him. Could we reduce his risk at all? Even a bit?

I can't find anything decent in advice to drink drivers about avoiding detection.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

There might be, but the advice that would overwhelm any other is either "drink less" or "get a taxi".


While the two are very different issues, we need to be aware of the parallels that may be drawn between drink-driving and speeding.

For example, there is still a lot of material in motorcycling magazines that celebrates irresponsible speeds on public roads.

_________________
"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

I'm relieved I wasn't the only one.



Perhaps there are some suggestions about how to appear to be drinking heavily in situations where peer pressure would dictate it, whilst actually keeping below the limit?

Apart from that, I can think of no other reasonable advice.

I've come up with a few...

* Insure your car "any driver" to make it easier for others to drive for you.

* Talk to friends and potential passengers while sober about them helping you not to drive drunk.

* If you must drive drunk don't carry passengers. (Not only are the passengers at risk, but also they might elevate your risk by distraction or inappropriate "egging on".)

It would be helpful to understand exactly how drink drivers have elevated crash risk. I do know that alcohol tends to reduce inhibition, and that could lead to reckless decision making. I guess it also leads to inattention and misjudgements. One of the most dangerous features may be overconfidence. If we can get these factors properly nailed down, we might be able to make some intelligent suggestions that would tend to mitigate the dangers - even being able to say simple things like: "Guard against overconfidence" could turn out to be valuable advice.

The more I think about it, the more I think the problem should be addresed on this level as well as all the other more obvious levels.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Something my wife told me yesterday horrified me.

A work collegue confessed to my wife that the reason she dadn't been driving the works mini bus wasn't that their employer had lost her details rather that she had been stopped for drink driving. The alleged offence only took place about a week ago. She had been for a night out (nice looking girl aswell) anyway to cut a long story short she fell out with the boyfriend and drove home which wasn't her original intention.

Anyway she was pulled over, she confessed immediately to the police that she had been drinking and that they ought to take her to the station which they duly did. She was suitably humble and apologetic. The policeman in fact commented that she was the nicest person he had ever arrested. Far from languishing in the cells she was 'comforted' in the station. Just prior to leaving having chosen the blood sample route, she inquired as to the procedure. The officer explained that the sample would go off to the labs but don't worry too much as the royal mail is terribly unreliable!

Now this is all very third hand and I may have completely got the wrong end of the stick, but if this doesn't reach court I will want to know why.

Incidentally the only reason she confessed to my wife is that she spotted an article in the local paper about a similar offence which had an identical blood/alcohol level, he received 1 years ban and £200 fine.

Max

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Tailgaters - Please Pass
You have an Accident to go to!

Having known someone who was a habitual drink driver and alchoholic they drove drunk as they truly and honestly believed they were more than capable even when sozzled. Their attitude was they were better drivers than average and therefore with a few drinks inside them they'd only be down to average. I argued with them until blue in the face that they were an irresponsible scumbag that could end up killing someone. They'd also say they got away with it 99/100, the pertinant question to ask was 'what about the 100th?'. They'd also blame all their accidents and incidents on other people and were incapable of taking responsibility for their own mistakes. They also had an incorrect assessment of their driving ability, they weren't that great and all the things they did badly while drunk they'd do sober. Poor observation and getting into stupid situations and blaming others was their usual modus operandi.

They have been done twice for DD and the last one involved crashing a car into the scenery, with no-one else involved. At the time they blamed their friends for 'making them' drink until they were unfit to drive. I told them to stop being so ruddy spineless and we fell out

Drunk drivers have an elevated crash risk because of their increased reaction times, reduced mental functioning combined with the bravado and loss of inhibition. I can't see how you can reduce a drunk's crash risk without reducing their alchohol level or tell them to drive home at no more than 5 mph (would make them a damn easy target for plod).

There are usually two types of drunk drivers, the habituals and the accidentals. The question is, is there a different accident risk for the two types?

I would say that the habituals can also be divided into the chronic alcoholics (many of whom are probably never below the limit) and those who are simply heavy drinkers on a few occasions each week.

_________________
"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed