On 2014-05-23 11:59 AM, sf wrote:

>> at the company party and they had offered her a ride home or a
>> taxi. He refused the ride. She then went to another bar and had a number
>> of drinks. It was in the second bar that she went over the booze limit.
>> The bar and the company were sued and found equally liable... but... the
>> bar had gone under and the company ended up having to pay it all.
>
> That is why tort reform is so important. In the absence of any real
> reform, that's why the legal blood alcohol limit that defines
> impaired driving has gotten so low and fines have gotten so high.
> Nowadays, you can hit and kill someone without suffering any real
> consequences if you haven't broken a law. They don't put you in jail
> for being stupid.
>



I am not advocating drinking and driving, but I think they are getting
carried away with the BAC laws. Before we had them there were laws
about impaired driving, but in order to get a conviction they had to
show some proof that the person was impaired, so there were a number of
field sobriety tests used. The BAC laws set an arbitrary level of
alcohol in your system and it can be measured objectively. I say
arbitrary because it varies from one jurisdiction to another.

While we are flogging the drinking drivers, there are lots of other
types of impairment that they don't bother with. People with severe
allergies, bad cold or the flu may be even more impaired by their
condition than drinkers. Apparently there is an epidemic of
prescription pain addiction, so those people are likely impaired by the
opiates they are consuming, not to mention those who are legally on pain
medication with doses high enough that they don't feel or don't care
about their pain.

Age is a major impairment issue. Then there is the use of electronic
devices while driving, which is involved in as many incidents as alcohol.

I also have issues with the punishment for DUI. I have seen too many
reports of people getting serious penalties for repeat offenses for
driving over the limit but with no crashes. Meanwhile, incidents of
drunk drivers crashing and there are injuries or fatalities but only
light sentences. There was a local case of a young woman driving
drunk... not just over 0.08... drunk. Her best friend was killed in the
crash. It is a worst case scenario, the reason we come down so hard on
those with elevated BAC. She showed remorse and got a slap on the wrist,
a couple months of house arrest.