Posting DUI checkpoint locations on Facebook

[Gravekeeper]

I say let them get stopped on their own merits. If they're too drunk to drive they will get stopped. If they're not and drive like a sober person they'll make it home like a sober person.

The problem is "their own merits" may very well kill someone else or themselves before they're stopped. -.-

Damn those people who had just a couple beers with dinner! Those drunk jerks deserve DUIs!

"Those People" should probably know better and not open themselves up to the possibility.

I'm really not understanding the vibe going on here.

[DrFaroohk]

They need to abandon DUI laws and turn them into "Shitty Driving" laws. One thing I hate seeing is someone fucked up right out of their head on tranquilizers and vicodin and they get in a major crash and destroy my car, and are so out of it they get lost at the hospital but it's ok because they had a prescription.

Or really old people! It shouldn't matter that they are old and special snowflakes. It should matter that there are many who would not be able to pass the field sobriety test even being sober.

[Gravekeeper]

One thing I hate seeing is someone fucked up right out of their head on tranquilizers and vicodin and they get in a major crash and destroy my car, and are so out of it they get lost at the hospital but it's ok because they had a prescription.

Er, that's totally illegal in all of Canada and every state in the US. The actual thing impairing your judgement isn't really the issue so much as your judgement being impaired. Prescription drugs are not exempt.

[protege]

The problem is "their own merits" may very well kill someone else or themselves before they're stopped. -.-

That's usually what does happen. They figure, "Hey, I got home before while trashed, I can easily do it again" only to wrap their car around a tree or kill someone.

When I was in college, there were several drunk-driving accidents just about every weekend. Rural area, with no bus or cab service...and too many idiots. Hell, I'd see an accident on my grandmother's road (which was a state highway) just about every weekend. One year, a woman was killed about 20 feet from her house. She was bombed out of her mind, and passed out. Her car rubbed up against the guardrail until it came to the turn-off for our side road. Guardrail stopped, the car went across the intersection...and plowed into a telephone pole, which fell on her

Found out later that she had a history of DUI. No sympathy here.

[DrFaroohk]

Er, that's totally illegal in all of Canada and every state in the US. The actual thing impairing your judgement isn't really the issue so much as your judgement being impaired. Prescription drugs are not exempt.

Pretty sure that's wrong. I know this is anecdotal, but I was once hit by a girl all messed up from the methadone clinic. Since she was "legally" intoxicated, nothing ever came of it.

Or perhaps the law has just changed. But I know in the not-so-distant past, my state didn't recognize anything other than alcohol for DUI.

[siead_lietrathua]

i'm one of those in the designated-driver boat. and only been stopped at a RIDE* setup once. although we usually do the back-roads for this reason, i had to take the highway after dropping off my last drunky and they were set up on the on-ramps out of City since it's right near most of the bars.
most of the cars ahead of me were stopped for maybe 30seconds - minute. enough time to ask if you'd been drinking while checking the car for booze-drug-etc smell and open containers. not an inconvenience at all, considering how bad it could get if someone slammed got on the highway O_O

i do feel bad for the people behind me though. i was stopped for a good 4-5 minutes. had Raccoon City Police Department patches all over my coat and the cop and i got talking video games ^_^ hahaha.



*er, for non-here people it's the "Reduced Impaired Driving Everywhere" Program

[Rapscallion]

my state didn't recognize anything other than alcohol for DUI.

I think the point here is your state's laws versus the legal system in Canada. The US legal system scares me. Over there, several DUIs is not unknown. At work alone, I know of two people who went on a bender and ended up over the limit the next morning - lost their licenses for a year. If either of them get caught again, they're likely to lose their licenses permanently.

Both are part of our wagon driving team. Both are currently off the road and restricted to warehouse or desk jobs and have to use bikes to get to work and back.

Rapscallion

[DrFaroohk]

Yeah I've heard canada is tougher on the DUI's. Where I live is fairly close to the border, and I knew a couple people who were banned from canada because of DUI's here in the states.

[wolfie]

Yeah I've heard canada is tougher on the DUI's. Where I live is fairly close to the border, and I knew a couple people who were banned from canada because of DUI's here in the states.

My understanding of this is that in the U.S., DUI is a traffic offense (a serious one, but still a traffic offense), and in Canada it's an Indictable Offense under the Criminal Code (U.S. equivalent of this classification would be a felony). It's not that the person is banned because of a DUI, it's that they're banned because of a conviction for (what would be if the offense had happened here) an Indictable Offense.

Classic hypothetical example of the difference between Canadian and U.S. law:
2 cars are pulled over for a missing taillight, one in rural Texas and one in the Slocan Valley of B.C. When the police officers involved run a check on the drivers' licenses, both are found to have expired. On a routine inventory of the vehicles before they are impounded, each car is found to have in the trunk (i.e. not immediately accessible to the driver) a loaded model 1911 .45 caliber handgun and a baggie with 10 grams of marijuana.

In the Texas case, the drugs would be a big deal, and the gun a "what did you expect to find?" issue. In the B.C. case, it would be the opposite.