Uddertorial: .05, make it dive.
As the advertising slogan goes: Drink and Drive, you’re a bloody idiot. But then we do allow people to drink, and still get on the road.
Now just think for a minute what a road vehicle is. In terms of a motorbike, it’s a mass of metal and plastic, usually starting around 100kg in weight, that can (legally) do up to 130km/h on Australian roads. A car, same speed, but much bigger, around the tonne or more in weight.
Now go back only a couple of hundred years, and if you had a weapon capable of doing those kind of speeds with that amount of weight, you could do a hell of a lot of damage to your enemy. Yes, the car/bike is a weapon, but because we are so use to them these days, they are not seen as that. Before you get behind the wheel of a car, think about how easy it would be to kill someone with that vehicle. A split second of difference in braking has someone dead. Now what if that person was a member of your family, or you? Got you thinking now?
But I know, cars are so much more safer these days. But there are a lot more cars on the roads these days, travelling at faster speeds, and with a lot more distractions to contend with. Incidents still happen, people still die, and alcohol still plays a big part in many of those incidents.
Which brings us to .05
The limit should be dropped to .02, and here are my reasons why.
While I personally would advocate for a double zero limit, you need to have some leeway for people. Staying alcohol free is easy for cows, we don’t drink, as we save it to you to put the kalua into milk.
What a .02 limit allows is for people to make an innocent mistake. Someone might have been drinking the night before, had a good nights sleep, but there was just a little touch of alcohol still in their system. They have done the right thing by not getting behind the wheel just after drinking, so they deserve a fair go. It could be that someone had some medication that had alcohol in it, so there needs to be that buffer.
A .02 limit lets people know, they will be given a chance, but they can’t make the decision to go and have a few drinks, and make a judgement call on if they are right to drive or not. This way the judgement is made for them, and it is a pretty simple one. “I’m going to drive, so I can’t drink”. After all, how many times have we heard the excuse “I thought I was right to drive”. Well tell that to the coroner.
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