I can see if one has lost someone to a drunk driver one would be upset and want to stick it to drunk drivers. Just as if one lost a family member to smoking one might want to stick it to the cigarette companies. I get it, and I'm not holding it against you. Someone said "what about the old days" where there were more D&D accidents? I'll offer my observations on this:
Back in the day before I was old enough to drive, every adult in my extended family drank and drove on a regular basis - like every week. their adult friends all drank and drove as well. I know because they would brag about how they drove home sloshed to the eyeballs amnd had no trouble at all, which made them amazing drivers and good with liquor. It was alomost like a contest. None of my extended family members ever had an accident while driving drunk, nor, to my knowledge, did any of their friends. The Mungo Jerry song "In the Summertime" with its line "Have a drink, have a drive, go out and see what you can find" was popular. Drunk driving was not often seperated from normal traffic accidents as a statistic like it is now. Now they say "A drunk driver caused a crash" then they said "An accident happened".
My realtives in the 1960's were rear ended by what would now be called a drunk driver. The driver of the pickup had a half empty open whiskey bottle next to him and crushed the rear end of my relative's car. When he got out of the truck he couldn't walk a straight line or speak without slurring his words. The local sheriff came to investigate (rural highway) and looked at the bottle and said "Phil, have you been hitting the bottle again? You should go home and sleep it off - get in the front of my car and I'll drive you home". He apologized to my relatives, said the guy was a friend of his sister, and said Phil had insurance so not to worry about the damage and to avoid any 'unpleasantness' he'd just leave out the whiskey part from his report. He (Sheriff) threw the bottle down the embankment next to the road) and send a towtruck to get their car, and added "there was no whiskey bottle, 'kay?". Funny thing was my relatives didn't think there was anything wrong with that, and said Phil was lucky he had a friend in the police dept looking out for him. Everybody drinks and drives - accidents happen. The mentality towards driving drunk was totally different then than it is now.
When I got my DL, my classmates used to brag about how many they could put back and still drive home. One kid: "I was so out of it last week, I dodn't even remeber getting in my car and have no idea how I got home" which was met by laughter all around and cheers.
So yeah, the atmosphere is different now. I'm not opposed to it being the way it is now. I generally think drinking and driving should be discouraged, not encouraged like it was when I was growing up. I follow the 2 drink recommendation not out of fear of RIDE checks (which I don't encounter much) but because I see the rational behind limiting oneself for safety's sake. Only one time in my life did I have too many and drive - it was when I was in my 20's and I thought I was Ok and drove the mile and a half from the bar to my apartment - I noticed that my reaction time to braking was way less than normal and those extra couple of seconds needed to brake, while not noticable to other drivers (including the police car driving by me in the opposite direction), was sure noticeable to me - it was like I was moving with a time lag from thought to response. So I said then and there that I wouln't put myself in a position where my driving skills were hampered like that again, and I never did. That was my personal experience with the "reaction time" debate.
My beef is with the 2 drink limit guide. I wish their was a better way to measure the level of impaired. Maybe a breath analysis machine at bars one could blow into before leaving? I was annoyed no end last night over my cell phone mishap, and this would have been avoided with a breath analyizer in the bar. IF I blew a fail, or even a borderline, I could have left my car downtown and taken a cab home. As it was, I left my car at home becasue I thought I might be borderline later and didn't want to risk it, knowing their was no way to check when leaving the bar my exact condition. If there had been a way to check, I would have just checked and based my decision on the machine reading. Some people can be real world impaired with 1 drink, others can be fine with 4 drinks. It would be nice to be able to check easily.
