.04

Really???,....I wouldn't have guessed,...{insert sarcasm here}


I think that's why I said I don't drink and drive ANY vehicle,........None, Nota, Zip,Zilch,.....

 

Join the crowd. I have not even had a drink when camping in over 3 years. In case the pager goes off for a fire or medical. Of course medical was interesting on a pot smoker call once.

 

Your absolutely correct. Today is not like in years past, insurance companies will rake you across the coals, that's if they will even insure you. I've locked up numerous individuals that had great jobs and that DUI charge screwed them one way or the other. Not just truck driver's, but people with company cars that need to drive to do their job. The DUI laws are always being strengthened one way or the other. If you get a DUI now, it seems you lose all the way around. I hear the horror stories in court as to what the person has to do, from AA meetings, victim impact panel meetings, supervised probabation (paying for that, which can get costly), drug and alcohol testing, the insurance premium spikes, the loss of income, etc....etc...etc. But I imagine, if you have ever been on the scene of a DUI wreck that has killed a innocent person, it will forever change the way you look at that offense. If you ever hold a small child in your arms that has been killed by a drunk driver and have to tell their parents that the child didn't make it through the collision, that will change your view. The worst one I had occurred back around 1999. A drunk, with 5 prior DUI's over the last 15 years, struck a family of 4 (Dad and Mom up front, brother and sister in the back of a Ford Expedition). The mother and father were pinned in the vehicle and seriously hurt, the sister was dead on arrival and the brother was seriously injured. NUmerous fire apparatus on scene, numerous fire companies on scene. Once the mother, father and son were cut from the vehicle, they were loaded on numerous ambulance and I believe 2 were airlifted to trauma. The daughter was dead from massive injuries, blood running out of both ears and nose. The drunk that hit them, had minor injuries (which is usually the way it works). I was the first Trooper on the scene and immediately recognized the family as they were from my hometown. The girl was 10 years old. I got in the ambulance with the father as they were assessing him and treating him awaiting on the bird to land, to ask questions about what happended, where they were coming and going. He asked numerous times about his kids and wife, and their condition. Telling him his daughter was dead was one of the worst things I have had to do as a Trooper. Being a parent now, I wasn't at this time, I now know how he must have felt. After seeing things like this, it will forever change the way you feel about drunk driver's.

 

It does go on a "Pull Notice"......

 

I have almost been in your shoes,...Almost,..

Growing up my father was the chief of a volunteer fire department and both he and my mother were in the town first class of first responders and then among the first EMT'S,.....

Being that babysitters were expensive most of the kids of the volunteers went to all the classes and had to sit in the back and be quite,...lol..

When the "emergency" phone would ring me and my sister would have to be ready and go just like my parents,....As I got older many on the duties not directly pertaining to patient care fell on the shoulders of the children of the volunteers,....Directing traffic,.running to the rig for things,..manning outside lines and the pumper truck at fires,..ect...It was a different and much less litigators time,...

While I have never had to be part of notifying a family member I have been closer than I ever want to be to it,....And have seen first hand the effects that drinking and driving can cause,...

I understand it,...What I don't understand is why so many don't,...

 

And what is so bad is they will argue the difference between .04 and .08! Like it really matters! For the CDL holder it can be death to your lively hood! Or death in another form. As the new saying goes is buzzed driving is drunk driving!

 

That's why I have a wife who rarely drinks......

And now the oldest will get her license in a couple of months...Then she can play chauffeur...


Way back in the "stone ages".....I was like everybody else.....
Dropped the truck off in the yard...pulled over at the liquor store down the way.....bought a twelver and it was gone by the time I got home.......

L.A. traffic ....took about 1.5 hours to drive 30 miles home....and that was in the 80's.......


Wouldn't dare do that anymore....

 

You guys are missing something extremely obvious here: Ever heard of a DWI? If youre ability to operate a vehicle is IMPAIRED, you will be ticketed, and it's just about as bad as getting a DUI. It doesnt matter if you cant handle alcohol, had a .01, or if you were just plain TOO TIRED TO DRIVE.

 

I thought DUI replaced DWI to include drugs legal or not; and fatigued driving can get you into legal trouble as well...

 

Fatigued driving is not a loss of license charge.