Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: syhprum on 11/02/2020 19:32:32
-
If I leave a party and set off to drive home on the motor way and then find that I am unfit with too much alcohol in my system what should I do ?
I cannot park on the high shoulder and sleep it off as that would certainly mean the police would investigate and I would be on a drunk driver charge.
should I leave the keys in the car cross the motorway and walk in the way I came and try and get off the motorway as soon as possible and call a taxi.
Any other ideas to avoid a crash or a charge ?
This assumes I have both a mobile phone and money but when this happened to me 40 years ago I had neither!
-
Prevention is better than cure.
- Count your drinks
- Eat before drinking
- Plan the evening: If you plan to drink, plan alternative transport
-
What a helpful suggestion ! ,rent a time machine and leave the party without drinking too much
-
Safety first, legal consequences later.
If you are on a motorway and sufficiently compos mentis to realise that you are over the blood alcohol limit, stay on it until the next exit or service station then turn off and call a taxi (or sleep if you have no money) at the first safe spot you reach. Motorways are by far the safest roads, but stopping on the hard shoulder is dangerous - especially on a "smart" motorway with no designated hard shoulder!
You will almost certainly be prosecuted if found in charge of a vehicle and over the limit, even if you are asleep in the back of a van: if you have the keys and there is nobody else around, you are "drunk in charge". But you can probably rely on a taxi driver's discretion if you leave the car locked in a parking zone until tomorrow.
If you walk any distance on a motorway, you will probably cause an accident or be arrested for walking on a motorway. If you must, walk facing the traffic.
-
and then find that I am unfit
The time to decide whether you're fit to drive is before you get in the car.
-
Surprisingly difficult. In many cases (and indeed most teenagers) a small amount of alcohol induces a sense of invulnerability, which is why soldiers from Vikings to the Western Front were encouraged to take a nip before going over the top.
-
Surprisingly difficult. In many cases (and indeed most teenagers) a small amount of alcohol induces a sense of invulnerability, which is why soldiers from Vikings to the Western Front were encouraged to take a nip before going over the top.
But it gets easier after you've driven a mile or two down the road?
-
You may start off feeling invulnerable and even a bit sharp (darts players suggest that one relaxing pint actually steadies your hand - one of the few instances of extensive statistical analysis of alcohol toxicity!) but driving exposes you to a lot of contradictory information very quickly - near misses, missed turnings, something wrong with the speedometer, bloody maniacs blaring horns and flashing lights at me - and the rational brain realises that what passed for quick wit in the pub is actually a very slow response to serious danger.
Been there, done that. Just once. I was well within the legal limit but had been chatting with a delightful German girl and left the party at 2 am with my now-invincible brain engaged in German mode and planning our next meeting. After about a mile I realised I was driving on the wrong side of the road.
-
My incident happened 40 years I had attended a printing exhibition at Birmingham where my company was exhibiting, on the last day when everything was being broken up there was lots of free white wine available and I thought if I got a little tipsy I could have a sleep in the car park.
Unfortunately this was not possible and I had to set of up the M6 for about 100 miles to where I had an hotel booking.
I soon realized I was over the drink drive limit but the only thing I could think to do was to drive at a modest 60 mph so as to not attract attention by going too slow (this was before the days of mobile phones) as well I was low on fuel and worried I might run out.
I made it without incident but was very releived when I made my hotel !
-
60 mph on the M6? Golden days.
-
If I leave a party and set off to drive home on the motor way and then find that I am unfit with too much alcohol in my system what should I do ?
I cannot park on the high shoulder and sleep it off as that would certainly mean the police would investigate and I would be on a drunk driver charge.
should I leave the keys in the car cross the motorway and walk in the way I came and try and get off the motorway as soon as possible and call a taxi.
Any other ideas to avoid a crash or a charge ?
This assumes I have both a mobile phone and money but when this happened to me 40 years ago I had neither!
Call the police and ask them to come and arrest you.
Or are you somehow looking for an answer where your illegal behaviour goes unpunished?
-
Call the police and ask them to come and arrest you.
Not the safest or most socially responsible option.
Assuming there is a hard shoulder, you will have your vehicle parked on it for at least 30 minutes, then two, with coppers walking about and blue lights flashing for another 30 minutes, all of which is an accident waiting to happen as other marginally less drunk drivers start rubbernecking (local copper informed me, after I had been rearended in a motorway queue "the biggest cause of accidents is other accidents"), then a convoy to the cop shop which will be some way off the motorway, then a near--sober police doctor and duty solicitor will be called from their beds.....all potential hazards when the sleep-deprived gentlemen drive to their offices the next morning. And meanwhile you have occupied the time of two traffic cops and the custody sergeant whilst others are creating real mayhem on the roads and in town. Then you throw up in the cell and soil Her Majesty's Blanket, and weeks later occupy a whole raft of Court officers and three magistrates who have better things to do and probably a solicitor who has trained and studied for five years so he can stand up and protest that a person he has never actually set eyes on is a model citizen who had One Moment of Misjudgement but threw himself on the mercy of the law which he respects, and a Crown Prosecutor who hasn't read the case notes will describe you as a habitual drunk and menace to society who should be incarcerated for gross stupidity....and everyone will be thinking "For gawdsake why didn't he just keep stumm and sleep it off in a field?"
If there isn't a hard shoulder, you and some innocent trucker will also tie up an ambulance crew, A&E staff, duty radiographer and anesthetist, and a couple of surgeons, and enjoy the full panoply of intensive care and NHS catering, before the law takes its course. Unless you are hit by a bus, of course.