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The Next Step is to Treat Drunk Drivers the Way We Treat Smokers!

Now if you smoke, you already know what I’m getting at.  You go to the park, or the beach, or maybe just walk down the street smoking in public and people give you dirty looks.  But it doesn’t stop there, does it?  No. 

Somebody will most likely come up and directly confront you – PUT THAT OUT!   WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?  HOW DARE YOU?  And that’s the polite ones. 

Smoking has become vilified in our society to the point where if you smoke in public, you can expect somebody to harass you.  Contemporary etiquette Demands that smokers ask if it is OK before lighting up.  People feel ENTITLED to tell you to your face not to smoke around them.

You get nagged by complete strangers if you are a smoker.  If you drink and drive, however, the mood is entirely different. smoker

Suppose you are sitting in a bar or restaurant with a friend.  You’ve downed a few beers, and you’re ready to go.  Your friend gives you a handshake and a wave as you leave.  The couple at the next table gives you a polite smile and everyone is happy … as you get in your car … at like a .09. 

One of the reasons many people drink and drive is because they can!  They have a built-in support group called ‘modern society’ with representatives in every bar, restaurant, and party ready to smile and wave goodbye as they watch each other stagger to their cars.  People can drink and drive because they know that other than the cops, nobody else is going to harass them.  This is how smoking used to be!  Other than your doctor, nobody was going to get in your face about it.  That was before smoking became vilified.

The vilification of drunk driving is a social change waiting to happen.  Too few are willing to say, “Hey there!  You’d better wait a while before getting in your car.  There’s too much of that drunk driving crap going on!”  They don’t feel entitled to tell you off about driving after drinking like they will if they catch you smoking.

Like the air, we all share the roads.  We HAVE an entitlement to drunk-free roads the same as we have an entitlement to smoke-free air.  I would even argue that we have a far greater entitlement to drunk-free roads because, unlike the whisp of second hand smoke, a drunk driver can maim or kill you immediately and effectively. 

Americans need to recognize this entitlement and embrace it.  It shouldn’t be as easy as it is to sit around drinking with friends right before hopping in the car and driving away.  Friends and complete strangers should get up the courage to speak out and stop people from getting in their cars after drinking.  Look at how many drunk driving stories state the offender was leaving a party/get-together/dinner with friends/family/coworkers.  Look at how preventable these are!

All you non-smokers should compare the ‘danger’ of second-hand smoke and ‘horror’ of cigarette butts littering the sand to drunk drivers spilling blood (possibly yours) all over the streets you drive on.  Then, get up and get in people’s faces before they can drive drunk the way you do when somebody has the unmitigated audacity to light up in your general vicinity.

And for those of you who smoke, guess what?  Here is YOUR chance to join in the fun everybody has been having at your expense.  You too can approach your friends and even complete strangers when you see them about to drive after drinking.  You can get in their face, prevent an instance of drunk driving, and quite possibly save a life.

As I said, this requires a societal change.  Enough of us have to do this to make it work.  It can begin with even the small number of people reading this blog.  The way smokers are commonly treated in public began with a few people here and there expressing their entitlement, getting in somebody’s face, and showing people they weren’t going to take it anymore.  Other people saw this and ran with it.  It spread and here we are today where you can’t light a cigarette at the beach.  Drunk driving deserves this treatment, don’t you think? 

We can do it.  YOU can do it!  Check out this video about how to spread a concept.  A drunk guy (ironic, I know) is doing a crazy dance at a festival.  Another guy gets up to mock him.  The drunk guy teaches the other guy how to do his particular crazy dance.  More people get up and join in, watching and teaching each other how to do the dance.  Before you know it, the entire crowd is doing the same crazy dance and it all started with one drunk guy.  All we have to do is recognize the opportunity to prevent somebody from driving after drinking and jump on it.  Others, seeing this, will follow. 

Here is an interview I did on Ridin Dirty – The Radio Show August 2, 2010 which touches on this topic.

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New Drunk Driving Laws Will Create Jobs

Many states are adopting new laws against drunk drivers that involve putting an ignition interlock system on the offender’s car.

An ignition interlock is essentially a breathalyzer wired into your car’s ignition system.  A clean breath test is required to start the car and randomly occurring retests ensure the person who started the car is the one still driving it.  Minnesota’s new law for example, imposes ignition interlock on DWI offenders whose blood alcohol concentration is .16 (twice the legal limit) or higher. 

We predict laws like these will create jobs in two particular industries. 

The obvious one is the ignition interlock business.  As we point out in our “Avoiding DUI with Devices” article, somebody who desires an ignition interlock device will want to consider location above everything else due to the necessary monthly visits to the shop for calibration and data collection.  The sudden influx of customers for ignition interlock installation centers all over a given state is going to drive the demand for more of these centers with qualified staff everywhere. 

Think about what will have to happen when the entire nation eventually adopts ignition interlock laws.  1,000,000 people at any one time will have ignition interlock systems on their cars!  There will be a need for ignition interlock installation centers in almost every city and town in America.

The other industry that can expect job growth from these new laws is Designated Driver Services.  Designated driver services are companies and organizations that get both you and your car home safely after a night of drinking.  Some of them use foldaway scooters that they stow in your trunk while they drive you home in your car.  Some send two people in a chase car so that one can drive your car home while the other follows.

These new laws present a situation where the court can impose punishment on you AND your family.  It goes like this …

Dad goes out, gets himself a DWI and now the family car has an ignition interlock on it.  Dad may also be in treatment programs and might even be wearing a SCRAM alcohol-monitoring bracelet.  But the rest of the family is prevented from driving the family car after drinking too!  Think about that.  Now, nobody can drive the car after drinking.  It’s still OK for Mom to go out and have a drink, but she is faced with the same situation in using the car as Dad.

With ignition interlock, somebody has to blow below a .02 to start the car and no sober person is going to blow for you AND be your passenger for the rolling retests.  If you drink, you need a clean driver to get home.  A designated driver service is a simple solution to this dilemma.  

So ignition interlock laws create new opportunities for designated driver services.  As their new law takes effect, 12 of Minnesota’s 87 counties have designated driver services operating in them.  We expect that number to grow as we have seen happen in other states like Washington and Illinois which have adopted ignition interlock laws.

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DrinkingAndDriving.Org's Interview on Ridin Dirty - The Radio Show

There is a unique radio program on KLAA AM 830 located literally IN Angel Stadium, Anaheim.  Created by its host, Ken Sharp, Ridin’ Dirty – The Radio Show is the only talk radio show dedicated solely to the issues surrounding drunk driving.  Ken and his co-host Julie Atkinson discuss the latest DUI news and related [...]

When People Who Should Know Better Don’t

When celebrities, professional athletes and other high profile people are arrested for drunk driving, it is easy to question their intelligence and ability to reason. We use the DrinkingAndDriving.Org Facebook Fan Page primarily to share the latest high profile DUI arrests like Jason Wahler, multiple Miami Dolphins, and others.

A compelling concept to realize about celebs [...]

The Future of Drunk Driving Prevention

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Tipping Off the Cops Revisited

In our Blog posting, “The Supreme Court Says No Fair Tipping Off the Cops” from October 24 last year, we were swayed by news articles we read online and compelled to speak up.  Since then, an important clarification has been issued in an article at PoliceMag.com entitled, “Beware of False Headlines“. 

If you have read our [...]

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Supreme Court Says No Fair Tipping Off the Cops!

When you see an impaired driver swerving on the road, the right thing to do is to report it so that they are stopped before anything tragic happens.  That’s what most of us believe and indeed is what we at DrinkingAndDriving.Org encourage.  We even make fun of people who don’t report drunk drivers.

So we were surprised [...]

BATmobile Rescues Sobriety Checkpoints!

 

Sobriety checkpoints have been around for decades now despite occasional controversy.  Sometimes they are successful and sometimes they are not! 

Successful sobriety checkpoints nab drunk drivers with as little impact to the rest of the traffic as possible and we [...]

Stallworth out after serving 24 days for DUI Manslaughter

Stallworth could easily afford to change their lives (again, only in a good way this time). It sounds too much like money wins again.