# Alcohol and driving do not mix. Seriously. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 24, 2015, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503 "2015-02-24T11:18:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2015, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/1 "2015-02-24T11:18:03Z")
A [cautionary tale](http://www.ambulancedriverfiles.com/2015/02/21/eighteen-invincible/) for all drivers, young and old. But particularly the young. I’ve put the sample quote in a spoiler because it’s **extremely** graphic, as is the whole tale. Seriously. You have been warned. > [@](#): > > Three bodies lie scattered around the scene. And I don’t mean a body here, a body there. I mean the bodies themselves are scattered. In pieces, no doubt cleaved by the same merciless combination of inertia and alcohol. None of them were wearing seat belts, not that it would have mattered. The fourth body was, and he – I guess it’s a he – still sits in the driver’s seat, a blackened husk on a bare seat frame. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2015, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/2 "2015-02-24T12:39:52Z")
Seriously, we were all warned two decades ago, and every single day since. The laws were tighten, enforcement was stepped up, public education efforts were doubled, graphic presentations were offered at schools, etc, etc. If anyone is so tone deaf they still don’t ‘get’ that it kills innocents, is being willfully ignorant, pretty clearly. At any rate, not quite sure how an ‘exetremely graphic’ few sentences of accident scene description are going to change anything, to be honest. Was that even your intent? What is it exactly you want from your audience? ‘Yeah, that’s just awful!’, ‘Garsh, you’re right drunk driving is dangerous!’ ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2015, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/3 "2015-02-24T13:24:42Z")
We definitely were a bit too casual about it back when, but we seem to have backed off a bit from the “Drag the drunk driver to the side of the road and shoot him” attitude that MADD was fostering a few years ago. Not that we have (or should) backed off on enforcement, but the attitude seems less witch hunt-y than it did. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/4 "2015-02-24T14:27:56Z")
As a friend of mine put it after getting into an accident: “You hear a lot about drinking and driving being bad. Know what’s really bad? _Sleeping_ and driving.” ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2015, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/5 "2015-02-24T15:35:03Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > \*\*Seriously, we were all warned two decades ago, and every single day since. The laws were tighten, enforcement was stepped up, public education efforts were doubled, graphic presentations were offered at schools, etc, etc. > > If anyone is so tone deaf they still don’t ‘get’ that it kills innocents, is being willfully ignorant, pretty clearly.\*\* > > At any rate, not quite sure how an ‘exetremely graphic’ few sentences of accident scene description are going to change anything, to be honest. Was that even your intent? What is it exactly you want from your audience? ‘Yeah, that’s just awful!’, ‘Garsh, you’re right drunk driving is dangerous!’ The pool of potential drunk drivers is not finite. Every month there’s a whole new crop. That people still drive drunk is proof we can’t let up on the education. Quite frankly, I’m shocked that anyone’s critical of it. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2015, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/6 "2015-02-24T15:52:54Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > . . . but we seem to have backed off a bit from the “Drag the drunk driver to the side of the road and shoot him” attitude that MADD was fostering a few years ago. I don’t know about MADD, but the laws themselves, as well as their penalties, have gotten much more serious in the last two decades, from what I’ve heard. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/7 "2015-02-24T17:29:53Z")
I am 100% supportive of all of it. Not sure how you got the opposite out of what I wrote. Just surprised that with all the resources currently being thrown at it, anyone should feel a few descriptive sentences of a traffic scene will provide the tipping point, is all. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2015, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/8 "2015-02-24T18:35:00Z")
I’m just wondering when all the resources currently being thrown at drunk driving will be directed at using the phone while driving. Both behaviors are terrible, but I feel the latter is far more pervasive. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2015, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/9 "2015-02-24T19:03:21Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > I don’t know about MADD, but the laws themselves, as well as their penalties, have gotten much more serious in the last two decades, from what I’ve heard. I have a very low opinion of MADD, but even if American laws about DUI (s opposed to drinking more generaly) have “gotten much more serious in the last two decades”, they are on the liberal side compared to most of the world. Here is a list of the BAC at which you are considered unfit to drive, by country. In America, it’s generally 0.08 (in some states 0.05 if you show additional evidence of impairment). In the majority of other countries it’s 0.05 or below, sometimes well below. [Drunk driving law by country - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drunk_driving_law_by_country) ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/10 "2015-02-25T01:10:00Z")
IMO. what happened when you are convicted of drunk driving in this country is disgraceful. I have met people who are wringing their hands, worried about going to jail, behind their FOURTH DUIs. Fuck that shit. Drive drunk, go to jail, is what I think should happen. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/11 "2015-02-25T01:19:33Z")
> [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](#): > > IMO. what happened when you are convicted of drunk driving in this country is disgraceful. I have met people who are wringing their hands, worried about going to jail, behind their FOURTH DUIs. Fuck that shit. Drive drunk, go to jail, is what I think should happen. +1 I couldn’t have said it better. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/12 "2015-02-25T01:43:57Z")
> [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](#): > > IMO. what happened when you are convicted of drunk driving in this country is disgraceful. I have met people who are wringing their hands, worried about going to jail, behind their FOURTH DUIs. Fuck that shit. Drive drunk, go to jail, is what I think should happen. Yup. This. I’ve had a cousin (waiting for his school bus) and uncle (on a divided highway) die due to intoxicated drivers, separate wrecks. I was a witness in another DUI case where the driver T-boned a pickup and killed his passenger (I saw the whole thing and thanked my lucky stars he somehow went around me at the stoplight). There’s no excuse, and I refuse to call DUI car wrecks “accidents” because they’re not accidents. At all. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/13 "2015-02-25T08:12:47Z")
> [@Hector\_St\_Clare](#): > > I have a very low opinion of MADD, but even if American laws about DUI (s opposed to drinking more generaly) have “gotten much more serious in the last two decades”, they are on the liberal side compared to most of the world. Here is a list of the BAC at which you are considered unfit to drive, by country. Of course, but this is a country where at one time all they did was throw the person in jail overnight to sleep it off. ---
**Author:** ![AnthonyElite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@AnthonyElite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnthonyElite)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/14 "2015-02-25T13:10:28Z")
I really think drunk driving should be a heavy mandatory jail sentence. You’re putting innocent lives in your hands. I’ve known FAR too many people who were on their third or fourth DWI. It’s insane. At first I thought their license should be taken away but it won’t work - these are people that are already breaking one law by driving drunk, they will break another and drive without a license. They need to be imprisoned. For the safety of innocent people. ---
**Author:** ![48Willys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/db5fbb/32.png) [@48Willys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/48Willys)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/15 "2015-02-25T18:12:51Z")
> [@AnthonyElite](#): > > I really think drunk driving should be a heavy mandatory jail sentence. You’re putting innocent lives in your hands. > > I’ve known FAR too many people who were on their third or fourth DWI. It’s insane. At first I thought their license should be taken away but it won’t work - these are people that are already breaking one law by driving drunk, they will break another and drive without a license. They need to be imprisoned. For the safety of innocent people. I agree 110%. I have seen more carnage from DUIs then anything else. I also have seen many people who drink & drive that have lost their licenses due to prior DUIs. Four or five DUIs? The laws are at fault. Today, another problem is indeed either talking, or worse, texting while driving. C’mon folks, pull over to text. As has been said, the life you save may be your own. As for the OP, if it stops one person from drinking & driving, it is worth it. An old addage, but still true. ---
**Author:** ![AnthonyElite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@AnthonyElite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnthonyElite)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/16 "2015-02-25T20:18:50Z")
> [@48Willys](#): > > I agree 110%. I have seen more carnage from DUIs then anything else. I also have seen many people who drink & drive that have lost their licenses due to prior DUIs. Four or five DUIs? The laws are at fault. > > Today, another problem is indeed either talking, or worse, texting while driving. C’mon folks, pull over to text. As has been said, the life you save may be your own. > > As for the OP, if it stops one person from drinking & driving, it is worth it. An old addage, but still true. What about texting while drunk driving? :eek: I’d agree that texting while driving is worse than driving drunk. I once chastised my girlfriends sister for that and she became very mad and asked if I wanted to walk. I told her NO I want to live and if I knew you were going to be so foolish and selfish I’d have driven myself. Needless to say I’m not too popular with that group. Seriously, who wants to fucking die, or how god damn selfish can you be, to kill/be killed over a message as stupid as “I’m almost home”? Just wait - you’re more important than your message…right? ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/17 "2015-02-25T22:06:19Z")
Truth is driverless cars can’t get here soon enough! Just imagine, you’ll be able to ‘drive’ home drunk, while texting, eating AND doing your makeup! Probably come equipped with a big screen tv! And imagine the boon to the bar and restaurant business, no one will stop drinking because they have to drive! ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2015, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/18 "2015-02-26T22:25:21Z")
Appropos of nothin, for the first time ever and for no really good reason, I read OP’s name as “Quarts” and it made me smile just a little. Must be time to run by the liquor store on the way home from work tonight. ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2015, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-and-driving-do-not-mix-seriously/713503/19 "2015-02-26T23:07:09Z")
We’ve still got a way to go. [http://www.dot.state.wi.us/safety/docs/owi-penchrt.pdf](http://www.dot.state.wi.us/safety/docs/owi-penchrt.pdf) Combine this with slaps on the wrist for phone/texting while driving here in Illinois, where it’s supposed to be hands-free only but every other driver is hands-on, and it makes me want to just stay home.:mad: