What harm rural elderly driving after a few pints?

[Sync]

Word would spread quickly and nobody would drive out of the pub.

Now, that is arguably a good thing because it means there aren't drunk-drivers on the road. But the likelihood is that once the gardai are known to have gone, the drivers in question would drive anyway.

The main result would be that nobody was caught.

It's why the gardai always have stops in very non-random places. They're always in a location that once you've seen the gardai, you have no opportunity to turn off.

Unfortunately, that's a very limited list of locations and any local will know routes to avoid the checks.

What I don't understand is the fixation with checking for drink-driving in urban areas where nine out of ten drivers at 2am is in charge of a taxi. Whenever I've seen drivers clearly struggling to control their cars, it's always been in rural areas.

But then the Gardai need to shut up. If you as Sgt decide you're going to set up 1 car down the road from Paddie's Pub at 1 am and 1 up the road from Paddies before the first turn in each road, and don't tell your team where they're going before 12.30, you'll net a decent amount. If people decide to leave their cars and travel home with friends rather than get caught, then that's good too. If people stay in past closing then you arrest the bar owner.

It just seems that you'd catch a higher % of people (And put the fear into the rest of them) by randomly checking 1 of the town's 5 pubs each week than setting up checks where you've got less chance of catching a drinker.

[White Horse]

Six pints of beer is not a "few".

No-one has argued that anyone should be allowed drive after consuming six pints.

Your thread title is trolling.

[Mitsui2]

I've always been curious as to why the Gardai don't just send 3 cars out to a random pub in towns each Friday night at closing, set up a barricade just after closing and breathalise everyone who drove out of the place.

Historicall at least I'd suspect that it was because they couldn't be sure that they wouldn't catch the "wrong" people.

[Oldira1]

This 'blame' culture is sickening. Nowadays when there is a fatal crash the road is closed for anything up to 24 hours because the Guards are trying to find out who to blame.. When I was younger there were fatal accidents along the road I lived and the crashed cars would have been moved and all cleared in an hour. Accidents happen and people die. This blame and revenge culture creeping in here is extremely sad. Every day we are seeing people appear at the courts intent on having someone jailed because a loved one was killed in an accident.

[HanleyS]

Six pints of beer is not a "few".

No-one has argued that anyone should be allowed drive after consuming six pints.

Your thread title is trolling.

How many pints is acceptable for an auld fella to have before driving home?

[jcdf]

BOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I disagree with the OP.

There is nothing wrong with people driving home from the pub drunk so long as they drive responsibly. People in rural areas need the pub and a few drinks in order to stay on the level.

This 'blame' culture is sickening. Nowadays when there is a fatal crash the road is closed for anything up to 24 hours because the Guards are trying to find out who to blame.. When I was younger there were fatal accidents along the road I lived and the crashed cars would have been moved and all cleared in an hour. Accidents happen and people die. This blame and revenge culture creeping in here is extremely sad. Every day we are seeing people appear at the courts intent on having someone jailed because a loved one was killed in an accident.

+1

[HanleyS]

It's an offence to serve alcohol to an intoxicated person. It's a law that has too long gone unenforced in Ireland.

[bob3344]

It's an offence to serve alcohol to an intoxicated person. It's a law that has too long gone unenforced in Ireland.

do you think publicans should force their customers to do a breathalizer before every pint, or maybe get them to walk the line ?

[HanleyS]

do you think publicans should force their customers to do a breathalizer before every pint, or maybe get them to walk the line ?

The thought of a potential hefty fine and loss of licence focuses the mind. It works in other jurisdictions.

[boo-boo]

Where's personal responsibility in this whole scenario. People choose to drive to pubs, the choose to purchase and consume alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks, the then choose to get into driver seats, put key's in ignitions (or push buttons if more modern cars) and then drive home.

Nobody can say they dont know that drink driving can cause accidents and that since drink is a drug it does impair ones thought processes and ability to respond. Its not about the blame game, its about persons taking personal responsibility for their actions and being accountable for the results of their actions. If a person is fatally injured or others suffer injury as a result, persons have the right to redress and that can be through the criminal court process or PI claims.