So lets say your intoxicated. Intoxicated to a point, where you could drive reasonably safe; but to say you wouldn’t be somewhat of a hazzard to others on the road would be stretching the truth a bit.
Now let’s say your pet dog or cat or whatever finds him or herself in a life threatning delima. The simple matter of fact is: If you don’t drive your pet to the vet hospital NOW; your pet dies.
So do you do it?
And respectfully, no clever “option C’s” either. Which means no: “I’d call the cops or call a friend etc…”
Just:
Drive drunk = Fido lives
or
Don’t drive drunk = Fido dies
Me personally: I’m grabbing a beer on my way out the door to drive Fido to the vet.
I’d WANT to, badly. But I could kill another person, or a carful of other people, or myself. And if any of the above happened, on top of not getting to the vet anyway, I’d be royally screwed. Especially if I killed anyone besides myself. That, I would think, would lead to rather awkward questions about my priorities.
I think it would be a judgement call I’d make at the time. Fallking over, slurring drunk - nope, I’m calling someone to help. A few beers with dinner, yeah, me and the cat are in the car.
I would drive him to the vet without hesitation. I would also remind myself that not only am I drunk, but I am worried about my dog and in a hurry, so I need to take particular care to relax and be as safe as I can.
Would you drive your pet to the vet if you were sober but hadn’t slept for 24 hours? (hint, the impairment is equivelant to a blood alcohol level of 0.1%.)
I actually think not sleeping for 24 hours is more of an impairment than 0.1.
In my youth I drove drunk several times, yeah yeah, it was stupid, but I always felt I was in enough control to drive. And honestly, not to get MADD on me but I’ve always thought that if you’re right around the legal limit you’re actually a lot better off than people say…that’s always been my experience. I do agree that driving is hazardous enough as it is, and people shouldn’t be driving above the legal limit (although I’m not too critical of people who drive at 0.8/0.9 since that used to be legal.) But at the same time I think a lot of the information about driving impaired is more or less bullshit. Like those famous driver’s ed videos that show what driving looks like through someone’s eyes who has a BAC of 0.10, and the portrayal is so over the top it’s borderline comical. I think if someone is a safe driver then a BAC of 0.10 won’t impact them so much that they’d be a worse driver than say, someone who was a really reckless/bad driver even sober.
A lot of people who drive drunk do it at well over 0.10, though. I’ve known people who have driven home and had no recollection of the drive the next day.
One time due to a long series of bad events I had to make a 2.5 hour drive after having no sleep for over 24 hours. Near the end of the drive I was near hallucinating. I had no ability to focus on the road. I would be looking at the road in front of me, then suddenly my mind would just drift uncontrollably, I’d be focused on a tree off to the side for example, and then I’d have to forcefully “snap myself” out of it. I basically was constantly doing that for the last 20-25 minutes. It was bad enough I considered pulling over on the interstate and sleeping, and if I had it to do over again I would’ve done just that.
So anyways, if I was just above the legal limit I would drive. If I was staggering drunk I’d try to find another way, but I wouldn’t drive if I was so drunk that I felt it would be unsafe. Luckily I’d never be in this situation as I never get drunk alone, so more than likely if something like this ever happened there’d be someone available to drive.
I think you’re misplacing a decimal point. The blood alcohol limit in Australia is 0.05% and according to this it is 0.08% in the USA. 0.1% is significantly above the legal limit in both countries.
If I got pulled over by the police I’d just swap seats with the dog and say he was driving. Hey, he’s probably going to die anyway, why would he care if he loses his licence?
I wouldn’t need to switch seats. My dog’s a very competent driver. Well, unless she’s unconscious.
But since there’s no ‘C’ option available here…Now, being totally sober and not facing the prospect of a dead pet, I’d say I wouldn’t drive her. But give me a few beers, and all reason goes out the window.
A tangental but cautionary tale:Several years ago, our neighbor’s dog managed to get out of the backyard on Christmas Eve. The husband (who had at least a couple of glasses of wine under his belt) hopped in the car, and proceeded to drive around the block, yelling the dog’s name out the window. He was pulled over and busted for DUI. Sort of put a damper on the celebrations that year.
Oh, and the dog made it back on it’s own.
Dog: “You! You’re late again! Working “overtime” again were we? And is that alcohol I smell on your breath?!”
Me: “Leaave mee alon’ dogsh, you don’t care anyway!”
Dog: “And why would I care for a drunken bum like you hmmmm?”
Me: “Pish off, get me a beer!”
Dog: “YOU CAN GET YOUR OWN GOD DAMN BEER!”
But this time things were different. The argument got more heated. I didn’t mean to hurt him. He was standing in the way, I just wanted to get past him. But he must have been off balance, when I shoved him he fell, he never has been that steady on his hind legs. His head hit the corner of the coffee table.
I’m sorry dog.
And now I’m left in this predicament, drive drunk to the vet, or let bleeding dog die.
I have often driven drunk to bring a dying dog to the vet.
(…replace “dying dog” with “bar skank” and “the vet” with “her appartment so I can have sex with her” )
It’s easy for me to say this as a non-driving teetotaler, but no, I wouldn’t do it. An animal’s life isn’t worth as much as a human’s and I could never forgive myself if I killed someone on the road.
It is possible to drive whilst moderately drunk and have no risk of causing injury, but only if you drive very slowly on minor roads. Letting anyone who want to to pass you. This is something the police look out for and will stop and test.
So I would drive the pet slowly to the vets. If stopped by police I would explain my pets situation plus all the reasons why it was completely impossible to get a frien or a taxi or other method of transportation.
This is such an impossible situation though, I might just wait for the giant squid to turn up and eat the policeman who pulls me over. How is it possible that everyone you know is incapassitated or unable to be contacted, all your neighbours are out, and all taxi services are fully booked.
