Thread: Drink driving

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

That is so, and it has happened to plenty. You are drunk in charge of the vehicle.

By this reasoning, I should have been done for DUI many times - I am the only driver, I keep my keys with me all the time (together with my house keys regardless whether I am near the car), sit at home office my desk, drinking Bundy, it is MY car so therefore I am in charge of it and therefore by the nature of ownership and a few Bundies I should be done for DUI...

Taking this a little further, it would mean that any legal owner of any car having a few drinks, regardless where and when, should be done for DUI.

on the OP's topic, in my last job, i was pretty much the only person in the company who didnt drink like a fish..... i mean, my tradie would happily knock back 3 tallies while driving 40 k's, and thats after we'd spent a hour at the local boozer after knocking off in whatever town we were in..... invariably there'd be this procession of the van (with me in it) followed by the 2 other utes...... i'd only ever drink orange juice (being the one who frowns upon drink driving), but leaving the pub first has gotten me pulled over more than a few times...... wasnt long before someone grabbed the label maker and "Designated Decoy" appeared over the drivers door.......

Originally Posted by Turtle61

By this reasoning, I should have been done for DUI many times - I am the only driver, I keep my keys with me all the time (together with my house keys regardless whether I am near the car), sit at home office my desk, drinking Bundy, it is MY car so therefore I am in charge of it and therefore by the nature of ownership and a few Bundies I should be done for DUI...

Taking this a little further, it would mean that any legal owner of any car having a few drinks, regardless where and when, should be done for DUI.

As I said, it has happened to plenty. Usually having a quiet sleep in the car in or near the pub. A defence is to convince the magistrate that you had no intention of driving the vehicle whilst over the limit. If you had actually driven to where you were having the quiet zizz, then that defence is shot to ribbons. One case that made the headlines in Qld. was a guy who was passed out in the back seat of a car parked in the servo right alongside the pub where he had been drinking. THe police broke a quarter window to get in the car to pull him out and arrest him. They claimed, straight faced in court, that they thought he was ill and in need of assistance, so broke into the car to find he was only very drunk. Magistrate accepted their story and stitched the guy up.