There seems to be quite a battle going on in our province and other places over the issue of drinking and driving. Here in British Columbia the government basically decided to tighten up the rules and effectively lower the legal limit from 0.08 % alcohol to 0.05%. There is some controversy over the end run they have done around the legal system by going to a fine and suspension system rather than battling drivers in court. I dealt with that in an earlier post. This time I want to look at a different facet of this debate.
The problem with these drinking and driving laws is that people don't really know when they are over the limit. If the rule was no drinking and driving it would be easy, but whether the limit is 0.05, 0.08, or something else, how do you know when you're over it? You guess. Cautious guessers won't go afoul of the law, but some will. Why the guesswork? It would be like if we didn't have speedometers in our cars but were expected to stay under speed limits. Would that be fair or even possible? So the answer is to have a way for us to know what our blood alcohol is before we step into the car and not to find out once we're at a road block. How expensive are these breathalyzers anyway?
Google it! I found this website: http://www.breathalyzercanada.com/?gclid=CNG9z7T34KUCFQYEbAod_VEj3g
Hmmm.... For a $100 bucks you can get one. $200 to get a good one. That doesn't seem like much given the importance of the issue. This should be promoted as a solution to the problem and breathalyzers should be in common use by all of us. Who wants to get me one for Christmas?
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I was curious to see what anecdote would follow.
ReplyDelete-the missus
You are suggesting we carry a gadget around with us to measure how much we've been drinking? Perhaps we could just keep a tab on it and realize if we can't remember we shouldn't drive? I must admit it would be interesting to find out what your alcohol level was. How many gadgets can a person carry around with them? I know Jack is already carrying around two? Cheers, xelA.
ReplyDeleteThe beauty of this gadget is you'd just keep it in the car. No need to carry it, since you'd only need it when you're in the car.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't keeping a tab on it that's the problem, it is that even if you know how much you've had to drink and for how long, you still don't have anything more than an educated guess of you blood alchol level.
I still believe that if you drink, especially if you think you might be incapacitated, you shouldn't drive. Save your money. Shouldn't we be more worried about keeping the streets safe rather than saving our a$&€s?
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