AquaVita

Thanks Ronin...it's stories such as yours that inspire me to remain alchohol free, and to make sure I'm available to drive my friends when need be.

Manta

Another thanks, Ronin. :notworthy Thanks for serving.

in the case of the drunk driver that crippled my MIL, he never did any jail time, and he skipped town before his fines were paid.

-k

Straight Hate

I applaud you for not driving - best decision ever. I lost 2 friends last year while they were on tour. They were travelling highway speed, got rear-ended from behind by a drunk (cops figured the driver was going at least half their speed again), were forced off the road and hit a tree. The impact actually, literally split the van down the middle into two halves. How the other three members of the van survived, I have no idea.

And then just a couple of months ago, a girl within our music scene that had moved here from Portland was killed by a drunk driver who didn't realize that a stop sign means you have to fucking STOP.

Drunk driving is up there with something like sexual assault for me becoming instantly enraged. No excuse.

Corwin

Driving and drinking is one area of my life that I've always been a hardass about, and it's had an effect on my life. I've lost track of the number of times I haven't gone out, because I wouldn't have been able to get home. (I generally don't use cabs. Sometimes, if I'm close to home, but living out in the suburbs it's incredibly expensive to take a cab to or from downtown.) Unfortunately, that means I don't go out, because I refuse to drive after I've had more than one drink.

I realize that I'd most likely be safe to drive after two, I just refuse to push it.

Catseye

Last time I was back in my home town, one of my oldest friends (I'll call her L) gave me a lift back from the pub. We'd been out with a group of friends I've known for a long time - most of them had been drinking and decided to walk home. L drove me home the long way round, to tell me how worried she was getting about V and G, a couple who'd been there that evening. She said she thought they were probably going to drive home, and had just told us they were walking to 'get us off their backs'. She said they'd done this several times recently to her knowledge, and the problem seemed to be getting worse. She'd tried to speak to them about it, but they either denied it or said that it wasn't a problem since they were good drivers anyway and could take their drink. She said G had also told her about one occasion after taking LSD, when he'd driven home and had to keep stopping in the middle of the road, thinking he could see animals running in front of the car.

I hadn't known any of this was going on, and L was obviously pretty worried. She said that, if nothing more serious happened, they could still get in a lot of trouble if they were caught over the limit. I said that I hoped they did get caught, especially if it was the only thing that might stop them doing this. She agreed. Then she giggled and said "But I hope we don't get pulled over tonight either - I had quite a bit to drink earlier and I don't think it's worn off yet!"

She wasn't kidding, either. I got her to tell me exactly how much she'd drank before I got there, and I think she was probably under the legal limit, although that didn't make me feel much safer. And she seemed disappointed to know that she probably didn't have to worry about getting pulled over, too. I thought she'd have more sense than that (hell, especially if she was taking the long route home just to talk about how worried she was about V and G doing the same thing). On the other hand, up until that night I thought V and G would have more sense, too. I mentioned that to her. She sighed, and said "Yeah, I used to be so good, didn't I? I even smoke now. My mother would go mad if she knew."

I'm still stunned. I don't know why she thought V and G driving drunk was a cause for concern but doing it herself was nothing major. And I honestly don't see how anyone, anyone, can think that it's some kind of rebellion against 'being so good', along the same lines as dying your hair bright pink and annoying your parents. Apparently the 'I'm a good driver, so alcohol won't affect me' defence is pretty compelling.

I hope it doesn't take anything serious to get them to see sense on this one.

MzNeko

A childhood friend of my husband's was killed by a drunk driver last year. They'd lost contact for several years and were just getting to know one another again.

My husband I don't seem to go out to things where drinking is involved very often. Not out of any great sense of virtue - we're just broke a lot, booze is expensive! But when we do, we take turns. One of us always gets the job of staying sober and driving us home.

brighid

My freshmen year in college I lost a good friend to drunk driving. Thankfully he didn�t kill anyone else, except himself. I don�t mean that in a callous way, but it was enough of a tragedy that alcohol and drugs consumed his life and lead to his death but that tragedy would have been compounded if innocent people had suffered and died because of his actions.

I was pretty devastated because we had been pretty close for freshmen through junior year. He was a talented artist and a really nice guy, but somewhere along the road of life he became a serious alcoholic. He would ditch school to drink and do drugs and occasionally he would come to school drunk. You couldn�t say anything to him to get him to change.

That night he had been drinking a lot and he refused to be driven home. He would be fine he said. Two friends followed him and on the way back they came to a sharp curve in the road (that has been the scene of many accidents and deaths) and well � he couldn�t navigate it. I don�t remember what happened to the car and unfortunately I he died and I couldn�t get back home. He had such bad head injuries that his head was swollen in such a way that his own family didn�t recognize him. He didn�t live long and it still makes me cry thinking about him. It was such a waste, such a total waste of an otherwise wonderful human being.

I use to hang out with a girl whose driving sober was enough to scare the shit out of anyone. When we went out I drove. She honestly thought she drove �better� while drunk! She is stubborn as a mule when you try and get her keys away from her. I have almost had to fight her for them on a few occasions. Eventually I stopped hanging out with her because her drinking problem just got so bad. I simply don�t need that shit. If she manages to get through life without killing herself or someone else I will be truly surprised. She has driven drunk so many times � and she has yet to get pulled over.

I won�t drive after a half a glass of wine, pretty much because I am now a total lightweight. My husband won�t drink at all if we go out to a party or dinner when he drives.

It�s just stupid and once you have gone down the path of killing another human being because you chose to drink and drive � well that just isn�t a mistake you can take back and what�s worse is that it�s completely avoidable.

Brighid

Corwin

There was a study done a while back (I don't remember details) that actually supported the idea that a lot of people, potentially even most people, drive better after a drink. (Increased relaxation, less likely to panic and over-react to something.) There is a VERY SMALL percentage of people that drive better after two drinks. (Again, don't remember details, but 2-4% of people sounds about right.)

Most people don't drive better after two drinks, and after three most people become considerably more dangerous behind the wheel. Of course, everybody's metabolism and experience are different, so as always YMMV.

brighid

Well, if my friend has only had ONE or TWO drinks - instead of three snifters of sambuca, 5 beers, and a few Kamikazee shots- and only weighed between 80-90 lbs - maybe then I would buy her argument

Brighid

Corwin

Of course... again if I remember right the people who did the study were hesitant to release their results for exactly that reason: That people would take it as a justification for driving drunk.