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| Should cars be legally required to have breathalysers? |
| Yes, and they should be interlocks (that is, the car won't start unless you blow under 0.05). |
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| Yes, but not interlocks – it should be up to the driver whether they test themselves. |
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| No, but people should be free to get one installed if they pay for it themselves. |
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| No, blood alcohol testing should be left to the police. |
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| Total Votes : 6 |
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Wokko 
Come and take it.
Joined: 04 Oct 2005
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| People with alcohol dependence issues have crazy tolerance. I had to call an ambulance for someone who had a BAC of .4. That's right Point Four. On almost all charts this is respiratory arrest, coma, death. She was chatting with the Ambos like nothing was wrong. (The withdrawal from such levels is another matter). |
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npalm
Joined: 01 May 2005
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| David wrote: | Do you really want to have to do a breath test every single time you go for a five minute trip to the shops, though?
It would certainly all but eradicate drink-driving, I'll say that much. But I doubt that it would be a particularly popular move. The fact that TAC ads have been presenting them explicitly as a punishment and a burden says it all – would be a little rich for them to turn around and start telling us that they're not so bad and that we're all going to be stuck with the system for our own good. |
There are a number of changes like this that could be introduced to lower the road toll......lowering speed limits, reducing the alcohol limit, increasing the licence age, etc . I think they would all be unpopular. And the politicians won't implement them because they know the community don't want them.
In 1969 the victorian road toll was 1034. The police and the press initiated the 'war against1034' campaign. The community subsequently accepted a range of inconvenient measures (such as compulsory seat belts and the .05 alcohol limit). These inconvenient measures have helped reduce the annual road toll to about 250.
I believe it's been hovering around 250 - 300 for some years now. It would seem that we're not prepared to accept any more inconvenience to reduce it further.
We'll need to look to other measures like safer cars, better roads and more driver education. |
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David 
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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But perhaps this is where something like my suggestion could come in? Others clearly disagree, but I reckon you could at least halve drink-driving fatalities if people had easy access to breathalysers. It's not an inconvenience, and I can't see why there'd be any substantial pushback apart from concerns about the cost.
I'd love to see us as a society explore more alternatives to a purely authoritarian approach, and not just on this issue. Sometimes you need to crack down, but other times just giving people an option can be enough.
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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stui magpie 
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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Halve drink driving fatalities.
Lets look at that. 99.7% of drivers tested are under 05.
Of the 200% fatalities on Vic roads in 2015 less than 25% involved alcohol.
http://www.tac.vic.gov.au/road-safety/statistics/summaries/drink-driving-statistics
Around the same number of pedestrians died in 2015 as drink drivers. Why focus on one not the other?
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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HAL
Please don't shout at me - I can't help it.
Joined: 17 Mar 2003
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| I would like to do that too. |
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think positive
Side By Side
Joined: 30 Jun 2005
Location: somewhere
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Did they get run over by drunks?  
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You cant fix stupid, turns out you cant quarantine it either! |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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^
Hah,
Most likely walked in front of cars because they were staring at their phone and/or had ear buds in. You see them all the time.
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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think positive
Side By Side
Joined: 30 Jun 2005
Location: somewhere
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Ah yes the phone thing! I got a nasty look from a woman trying to push a full shopping cart with a toddler in the seat, another hanging on, and a phone in her ear! She ran into me! "Either stop or put the phone down!" I suggested with a smile and walked off!
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You cant fix stupid, turns out you cant quarantine it either! |
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The Prototype 
Paint my face with a good-for-nothin smile.
Joined: 23 Apr 2003
Location: Hobart, Tasmania
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Didn't someone once post on here a link suggesting that it'd cost too much to have them installed into all the new cars? I thought there was anyway, I cannot remember knowing me it was probably not even here. I just remember something mentioned about that.
I'd prefer those who drank a lot got themselves one, rather than all cars having them. I don't drink, so I don't see why I'd need to have one in my car when I get one because of some dickheads that drink a lot and drive.
| stui magpie wrote: | ^
Hah,
Most likely walked in front of cars because they were staring at their phone and/or had ear buds in. You see them all the time. |
Way too often, I'm surprised there's not more of them cleaned up just watching them in the city down here. I suppose it's lucky some drivers are quick to see some of them.
This guy at Rosny was lucky he wasn't cleaned up when I was at the shopping centre not that long ago. ear buds in, eyes on his phone walking straight across the road without a care in the world, at least in his mind.
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Ðavâgé
https://www.facebook.com/davehardingphotography
https://www.facebook.com/Davage |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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Why not do both?
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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Just to go further, the point I was aiming at with those stats is the comparable scale of the issue. When you look at the leading causes of death, drink driving isn't in the same postcode. Money and resources are finite and need to be expended where most needed, you can't just throw them at everything.
So back to Drink Driving. Current stats show the Police are picking up something like 10 times as many drivers for being under the influence of drugs than they are being over 0.05. Let that sink in for a second, it's a scary stat.
A lot of money has been spent over a long time on campaigning against drink driving, and it's worked. Guess what the TAC ads are now far more likely to be about? Drug driving and speeding, not drink driving, That's where they think they should be focusing attention and money now.
To the argument that, "but having a breathalyzer in the car will save lives", there's no way to be sure of that. Every car has a speedometer and people still speed, and they don't have the option to not use it. So, logically the only people who are likely to use a breathalyzer in a car if it's not fitted to an interlock are those who are very unlikely to kill anyone anyway. At best it might save a small number of people from getting pinned for just over 0.05.
So, while it's a nice thought, IMHO it's impractical, unlikely to have any meaningful impact and is basically a WOFTAM that could and should be directed to more important things.
When you set out to fix a problem and succeed to a point it's always the last 10 or 20% that is the hardest and you have to make a call that, if you've fixed 80+% of it, is the last bit worth all the increased effort or do you just give it a tick and move on.
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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ronrat
Joined: 22 May 2006
Location: Thailand
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| think positive wrote: | | Ah yes the phone thing! I got a nasty look from a woman trying to push a full shopping cart with a toddler in the seat, another hanging on, and a phone in her ear! She ran into me! "Either stop or put the phone down!" I suggested with a smile and walked off! |
Or try, Is that a farking GPS because it isn't working. You should come here. 20000 deaths a year on the roads. Dying later in hospital doesn't count. Refusal to wear helmets on bikes, unlicensed school children riding motorbikes, most with pillion passengers, and 3-5 on a bike. The roads are crap and drink driving is rife. A day would not go past when I wouldn't see an idiot riding a motorbike whilst texting. If you are non Thai and there is an accident YOU are to blame.
And yet every week we seem to hear of some stupid twat who goes to Thaialnd, hires a bike without having any experience, gets killed or badly wounded , probably drunk, and the Australian Embassy is at fault because they won't stump up the money for the hospital bills because the insurance company won't pay.
Personally I think the Australian Police do a good enough job without having to force reasonable people to pay for idiots who won't learn. No amount of breathalysers is going to stop someone driving whilst disqualified for the 5th time whilst drunk. Perhaps the answer lies in the punishment. If you loan a car to someone you know is drunk/unlicensed your car is permanently confiscated and you lose YOUR licence for 12 months.
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Annoying opposition supporters since 1967. |
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3.14159 
Joined: 12 Sep 2009
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| 3.14159 wrote: | | 3.14159 wrote: | | David wrote: | | Have you been drinking? |
No, unfortunately! |
Don't blame me, blame Australia Post! |
Have you christened it yet?
Last edited by 3.14159 on Thu Feb 18, 2016 8:53 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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HAL
Please don't shout at me - I can't help it.
Joined: 17 Mar 2003
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| I lost my train of thought. |
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