# Drunk Driving
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [November 18, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379 "2011-11-18T19:34:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@pragmatic55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pragmatic55)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/1 "2011-11-18T19:34:16Z")
What are your thoughts, opinions, on its frequencies?
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/2 "2011-11-18T19:58:11Z")
Drunk driving is bad? Is there a counterpoint?
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### Author:  [@Soliloquy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soliloquy)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/3 "2011-11-18T20:08:12Z")
You have no idea how un-drunk you feel at .08. I see lots of people nightly who find that out, to the tune of thousands of dollars.
A couple days ago, I saw a 21 year old kid bawling when his mom came to visit him after his drunk driving caused him to kill someone. There goes his life.
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### Author:  [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/4 "2011-11-18T20:10:31Z")
Drunk Driving should be avoided.
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### Author:  [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/5 "2011-11-18T20:11:21Z")
My housemate and I used to go out drinking and come home and play this computer driving game. It was way more fun than it should have been, especially the crashes.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/6 "2011-11-18T20:12:52Z")
> [@Shakes](#):
>
> Drunk driving is bad? Is there a counterpoint?
**Shakes** , you ignorant slut.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/7 "2011-11-18T20:17:11Z")
It sounds like the OP is asking for information on how frequently people drive drunk. That’d be a factual question, so I’m moving this to General Questions from Great Debates.
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### Author:  [@Jbone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jbone)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/8 "2011-11-18T22:17:16Z")
I live in smallish rural town in Wisconsin and I’ve seen it done nightly back in my bar hopping days. I’ve never seen a fall-down drunk person attempt it, someone always steps in or they have a ride. Many bars are also members of the Tavern League of Wisconsin, which have a free-ride program, meaning they’ll call you a cab home and pay if you leave your car.
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### Author:  [@srzss05](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/srzss05)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/9 "2011-11-18T22:28:02Z")
> [@Jbone](#):
>
> which have a free-ride program, meaning they’ll call you a cab home and pay if you leave your car.
Anecdote— you have to be careful about some cab drivers. Once some friends paid for my ride home, but the cab driver charged me when I got home anyway. He probably thought I was so drunk I wouldn’t notice, but I really didn’t feel like arguing as the cops probably would have believed him. It kind of soured me on the idea thereafter.
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### Author:  [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/10 "2011-11-18T23:27:01Z")
> [@pragmatic55](#):
>
> What are your thoughts, opinions, on its frequencies?
A sociology professor at UCSD recently did [a study](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03472.x/references) which indicated that even a very small amount of alcohol in the blood will cause a much greater increase in accident risk than previously thought. He looked at about one million cases over a 15-year period–from the Fatal Accident Reporting System–in which at least one person was killed.
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### Author:  [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2011, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/11 "2011-11-19T02:23:37Z")
An excellent mug shot from last night’s arrest…
> **[Man Wearing “I'm Not An Alcoholic” T-Shirt Arrested, Of Course, For Drunk...](http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/drunk-arrested-for-dui-875412)**
>
> A New York motorist wearing an “I'm Not An Alcoholic, I'm A Drunk” t-shirt was arrested early today for drunk driving after he crashed into a police car.
> Kevin Daly, 22, was nabbed after plowing his
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### Author:  [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2011, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/12 "2011-11-19T02:57:22Z")
> [@pragmatic55](#):
>
> What are your thoughts, opinions, on its frequencies?
Hang 'Em High.
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### Author:  [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/13 "2011-11-19T03:17:25Z")
> [@guizot](#):
>
> A sociology professor at UCSD recently did [a study](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03472.x/references) which indicated that even a very small amount of alcohol in the blood will cause a much greater increase in accident risk than previously thought. He looked at about one million cases over a 15-year period–from the Fatal Accident Reporting System–in which at least one person was killed.
I don’t see how any causal relationship can be drawn here without knowing a lot of unknowable numbers such as percentage of people driving with BAC \>0 and not crashing/getting pulled over and compensating for lots of other known risk factors such as car type, age, gender, time of day, weather, etc.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2011, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/14 "2011-11-19T03:48:00Z")
You disappear for five years, then open a thread in General Questions asking for opinions.
Moving this one to IMHO, from General Questions.
**samclem** , Moderator
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### Author:  [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2011, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/15 "2011-11-19T03:58:05Z")
> [@samclem](#):
>
> You disappear for five years, then open a thread in General Questions asking for opinions.
>
> Moving this one to IMHO, from General Questions.
>
> **samclem** , Moderator
He got paroled.
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### Author:  [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2011, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/16 "2011-11-19T04:44:28Z")
I’d like to play devil’s advocate here.
We’ve all seen the Mythbusters episodes where they drink until slightly under .08 BAC then drive in a controlled circuit with cones. This type of experiment yields false results (at least misleading) because of several key reasons. One, the test track is nowhere near representative of real streets and roads (geometrically speaking). Second, they try to drive as fast as possible around the track, whereas a drunk driver who is tipsy will probably be extra careful, be mindful of the speeds, etc. In order not to give reson to a cop to pull him over. Finally this type of test only makes matters worse, because by manipulating the test conditions to force a contrast between drunk driving and non drunk driving, then extrapolating those differences to the actual known accidents/deaths on real roads, the real proportion of drunk drivers on the road is underestimated. So if it is underestimated, that means that maybe there is a way, a method to drive drunk safely. Question to throw out there: can drunk driving practice in a closed course be beneficial to the driving population a large? Should it be required training for those over 21?
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2011, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/17 "2011-11-19T05:27:59Z")
> [@guizot](#):
>
> A sociology professor at UCSD recently did [a study](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03472.x/references) which indicated that even a very small amount of alcohol in the blood will cause a much greater increase in accident risk than previously thought. He looked at about one million cases over a 15-year period–from the Fatal Accident Reporting System–in which at least one person was killed.
I have only read the abstract, but: so their population is people who have been in fatal accidents, and they feel they can generalize it to sober/tipsy people who have never been in a fatal accident? I understand that data on the second population would be hard to find, but it still sounds confounding.
And to the OP, yes, 0.08% is not noticeably drunk, and many may drive even if they don’t know they are that far along. Also, you can often get arrested for “impaired driving” even if BAC is under the limit.
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### Author:  [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2011, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/18 "2011-11-19T05:53:49Z")
> [@The\_Niply\_Elder](#):
>
> Second, they try to drive as fast as possible around the track, whereas a drunk driver who is tipsy will probably be extra careful, be mindful of the speeds, etc. In order not to give reson to a cop to pull him over.
I agree. I have a theory that anyone driving EXACTLY the speed limit is drunk. Most people drive around 5 MPH over (or in my town, an infuriating 10 MPH under.)
If the OP is interested in anecdotal evidence at all a there’s a recent “do you drink and drive” poll.
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=631447&highlight=drunk](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=631447&highlight=drunk)
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### Author:  [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2011, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/19 "2011-11-19T07:27:55Z")
> [@The\_Niply\_Elder](#):
>
> Question to throw out there: can drunk driving practice in a closed course be beneficial to the driving population a large? Should it be required training for those over 21?
Umm … no?
Not everybody over the age of 21 drinks, y’know.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2011, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-driving/603379/20 "2011-11-19T08:06:27Z")
> [@The\_Niply\_Elder](#):
>
> Question to throw out there: can drunk driving practice in a closed course be beneficial to the driving population a large? Should it be required training for those over 21?
Most people are capable of learning from other people’s mistakes, not just their own experience. I didn’t need any firsthand experience to convince me that I shouldn’t drink and drive. Reading about studies and anecdotes was enough.
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