Sure. That’s not going to massively inconvenience law abiding citizens at all.
Sure. That’s not going to massively inconvenience law abiding citizens at all.
well…they don’t stop every car
What kind of roadblocks don’t stop every car?
But I agree that roadblocks on New Years, 4th of July, Memorial Day Weekend and Superbowl are an acceptable inconvenience.
It’s weird that you posted this. A acquaintance of mine from high school is in prison right now for killing another driver, in almost the identical circumstances you describe. It happened just a few months ago. It was late at night, he’d had a few beers, he was driving on a country back road he knew like the back of his hand, and as he approached a blind curve, he went left of center, and so did the car speeding around the curve from the other direction. My acquaintance was basically unharmed, but the other guy didn’t make it.
ETA: I just re-checked the news story, and actually the other driver was on a motorcycle, for what that’s worth.
Acceptable for you maybe. Utterly unacceptable for me. What with the consitutionality aspect of them as well. Where are you from? It just took me 6 1/2 hours to drive to Virginia Beach the last holiday weekend, and 3 hours and 10 minutes to drive back. If you had added roadblocks onto the drive down, I would still be in a car outside Newport News.
My location is listed. I don’t see that’s it’s much different than going through security at airports, and it’s a few days a year. Knowing there’s a good chance you’re going to go through a roadblock on the way home kept a lot of people I knew from drinking and driving on holidays over the years.
Edit: And really, you can’t choose to go to a popular vacation spot on one of the busiest weekends of the year and then compalin that the roads were crowded. Move closer or go somewhere less popular. The world doesn’t revolve around you.
Yes, your location is listed. It doesn’t show up when writing a response, however…
I’m not complaining about the roads being busy. I am statign that the roads are incredible busy in some areas of the country at holiday times, and adding roadblocks would massively increase the travel time. Which affects law abiding citizens such as myself. Just because you are happy with time wasted like that doesn’t mean everyone else is. I was trying to explain to you the utter impracticality of road blocsk during public holidays in a high traffic area.
I also think (having recently almost missed a plane I arrived 2 hours early for, think the way airport security is organized is an utter clusterhump. Not to mention airports and roads are different places constitutionally.
It doesn’t show my location right under my join date when I make a reply to you?
If traffic is already stopped, I don’t know that a cop looking at your license and sniffing your window will really do that much more to slow you down. And I think the lives that are saved make it more meaningful than “wasted time.”
Funny enough, the peoples democratic republic of Ontario have reduced the BAC for what would have been a 12 hour suspension, and increased the suspension to 3 days on the first offense, with an upgraded punitive measures for each successive suspension.
I don’t believe that moving the goal posts regarding DUI is a particularly good idea, as there was originally supposed to be some fudge room for the folks that might have a glass or two of wine, while visiting friends at Christmas and the like, so that there was no doubt that anyone over the .08 had no excuses.
The purpose of the punitive laws in jurisdictions is not revenue generation, if it is generating more revenue than it’s costing in policing, then it’s a bonus. What they want to do is to eradicate the culture of drinking and driving, so that in the future, a BAC of .01 would be concidered a heinous crime.
To do that effectively requires a viral marketing campaign, so that the total list of offenders in a given year never amount to more than a couple of percent, or in political terms a threat to the sitting govt in an election cycle. Secondly the people must be conditioned to accept that a DUI is a heinous crime, and that malefactors villified at every available venue.
Next the law must be Enforced selectively, so as not to impinge on the pillars of society, who may be tippling at christmas among other times, while giving fair warning enough that every third car on the road is a police cruiser, and blockades are just around the corner. Thus anyone actually drinking and driving is to be villified for said activity, while maintaining the status quo.
Add to that, especially punitive measures for people who refuse to submit to a breathalyzer test, so as not to incriminate themselves, by actually providing legal proof of what the reading says.
Declan
When I am typing a reply and scroll down to see the prior posts, it doesn’t include the people’s location.
Lots of things save lives, but at a cost of making travel slower. I remember a Bloom County cartoon on this very point, in fact. And if you think it wouldn’t slow down traffic significantly, well, I think you are very much mistaken.
If you’re saying traffic is already stopped, what’s it gonna do - make people go backwards?
Wait, all my arguments are null and void because there was a Bloom County cartoon (whatever the fuck that is) about it and sdmb poster villa thinks I am very much mistaken. I might as well just cut my tongue out at this point because I’m all washed up!
When you are in the reply window the location and post information is not displayed.
I disagree. Road blocks by their nature take resources that could cover additional roads and locks them into a single location. Visual identification of impaired drivers weaving is an effective method of identifying an impaired driver and allows an officer to focus his/her time more efficiently.
You think they will walk from car to car in the middle of traffic jams asking for licenses? Or maybe do you think people will be pulled over to be interrogated?
Holy crap, the Bloom County thing was an aside. You can make the roads safer by having the speed limit at 20 mph. Road deaths would drop dramatically, especially if you mandate felony length sentences for those who speed. It would also be a bloody stupid idea.
The fact that you don’t think roadblocks would significantly increase travel times in busy areas during holiday peak travel seasons really isn’t worth looking up proof against. It is so bloody obvious it would it boggles the mind that you think differently.
A more fitting analogy would be lowering the speed limit to 20mph for a couple high risk hours 5 or 6 times a year. Ah, but that doesn’t sound nearly as bad, does it?
Sure it would increase times a bit. Just not more than would be worth it IMO. I’ve been through dozens (honestly maybe a triple-digit number) of road blocks in my life- they were practically a weekly occurrence where I grew up- so you can’t sit here and tell me they take hours to get through. I know better. And we’re talking maybe 10pm to 4am here, not exactly rush hour.
Or roughly equivalent to one Air France Airbus crashing every week and killing all aboard. It’s all about perspective.
If you drink, then you don’t drive. If you drive, then you don’t drink. I have no sympathy at all for drunk drivers. If I supported capital punishment, I would push for laws to make a drunk driving offense where someone died a capital offense.
What’s interesting about Voyager’s stats is that the incidents due to alcohol-related deaths has gone down every year since 2002 (while, presumably, there have been more cars and more drivers on the road in that same period of time).
This is interesting because, at least here in New Mexico, during that same period the government has gotten a LOT more strict on drinking and driving. I don’t know if this proves anything…but, it IS interesting.
-XT
That is interesting. I’d be interested in how they are distributed across the BACs. I have no doubt that someone who is drunk is a hazard that should be taken off the road and punished very harshly, I just don’t know what “drunk” is. Is .05 worse than talking on a cell phone or eating (or reading a newspaper for god’s sake, which I sometimes see people doing)? Probably not. Is .14? Almost definitely. But where’s the line?
My guess is that it varies from person to person…but some limit needs to be set. There are always people who are going to be able to go to that limit and beyond without impairment (my father in law can drink like a fish and you’d never know he was drunk…the man has a hollow leg or something), and others who will drink less and be impaired.
My guess is that the current levels are about right, give or take a percentage point for most people. Seemingly (assuming I’m reading those stats correctly) we are doing SOMETHING right…though we still have a long way to go if over 16k American’s are dying a year due to alcohol related accidents. That’s more people than are murdered in the US a year, IIRC.
-XT
You know, I never thought about this aspect too much.
Is there any other crime where a refusal to incriminate yourself is punished?
Has this been ruled legal (in the US) because the revocation of driving rights doesn’t require due process because they’re a privilege?
We have a huge problem here in Illinois with police not following proper procedure when making DUI arrests. Recently a large number of convictions were thrown out because the police officer was not following proper procedure. These were misdemeanor charges. Imagine if they had all been felonies as some suggest?