John Stossel - Abolish Drunk Driving Laws

[tehArgento]

The problem is when you get an average Russian that immigrated to the USA.




The average Russian Male alchohol blood level is 35%

[rickuyeda]

In Japan, if you have the smell of alcohol on your breath, it's one year in jail. I stopped a motorist for swerving between the lines. I thought it was a drunk driver. Turns out, it was a Japanese female. He passenger was her husband. There was no ordor of alcohol on the female so I asked her husband, "Why is she driving? She can't drive". He said in had one drink which is why he wasn't driving. I did a Field Sobriety Test on the husband, which he passed. I told him to drive instead of his wife. I advised the wife to take further driving lessons.

[michaelgray]

Drinking and driving and drunk driving two different things

[BlueJDMMR]

I think we should abolish all drunk driving laws, and only arrest people for clear cut RECKLESS driving. If you're so drunk you're driving recklessly, you go to jail. If you're street racing, you go to jail.
We shouldn't send people to jail because their tail light was out and they had alcohol in their system from drinking a glass of strong wine at the restaurant.
RECKLESS driving kills people, most people die from it, regardless if they were driving reckless on alcohol or they were sober.

[Inbal_Feuchtwanger]

Ive only had one major accident in my life. I used to be addicted to alcohol and drank about 1/5 a day on average. That just kept a buzz going. Im not proud of it, but I drove all the time with alcohol in my system. I always paid better attention when I was drinking and never ran a light, went the speed limit, maintained a safe distance, and never crossed lines. I never felt my driving was impared from drinking, then again I walked and talked normal when I drank as well. This is what is called a functioning alcoholic, and its very dangerous because you allow yourself to abuse it and do harm your body because you can get away with it. The one major accident I had was from being sleep deprived, I rolled my car off a cliff leaving to work in the morning literally 30 seconds away from my home. I was running latte, got out of bed and threw on my clothes, and was in my car about 2-3 minutes after waking up. Fell right back asleep. Lack of sleep is a dangerous thing.

[BlueJDMMR]

I'm good friends with a paramedic. His job is to essentially to pack up the dead bodies after the carnage of fatal car accidents. I asked him "When a drunk driver has caused one of several fatal wrecks you have worked on, have they usually had 1 or 2 beers, or are they completely shitfaced drunk and can barely walk?"
His answer was that shitfaced drunks tend to be the one causing all the accidents. Whats stupid is you can get a DWI for.03 BAC though yet they pose little threat to the public.

[trishfitzpatrick]

Twenty eight year old son was driving home from a church function and had to pass a "gentlemen's club" where a drunk driving trap was set up. For no obvious reason other than seeing a young man in this particular area, he was pulled over.

My son has a speech impediment. He had his license, registration, and proof of insurance. He was doing 11 miles per hour over the speed limit on a deserted road.

The officer forced my son to get out and do a drunk driver coordination test which son had difficulty with, again because of his genetic shortcoming. Finally, he had the breathalyzer test. Zero. All this humiliation in the hopes of snaring some poor schmuck who IS NOT driving recklessly. The only thing in his system was coffee, black.

Now I have to consider that these drunk driver campaign are just a way of covering budget short falls. STOP THIS MADNESS!!

[marcellegault]

I dont agree with him at all. and im a hardcore libertarian of the milton/Rand type. Theres a case for government whenever you do something that affects a 3rd party.
Drunk driving affects a 3rd party.

The freedom to swing my fist ends at someones elses face.

[mortyjames]

0:39 bottom right of the crowd we see the lone sigma male surrounded by sheeple

[tonydetuna]

Update. ...
.
Now cell phone usage and texting is the cause.
.

[Meastriser]

sober or drunk, if I cause damage, I am liable. sober or drunk, if I do not cause damage, I am not liable. yes, one is high risk, but the principles of a free society have to be respected. everyone who takes to the road must accept the risks is never completely safe be alert and vigilant.

[busukevm]

Also open container laws, get rid of them.

[cravinbob]

They are not suggesting making drinking and driving legal! The laws are overboard and causing police to use up time on one DUI suspect who may have done nothing more than a rolling stop while speeders, reckless and careless drivers abound. Sleep deprived are just as or more dangerous. Texting on cell phone while driving causes the driver to be 90% more dangerous and likely to cause an accident than a drunk driver. The fact is that speeding and following too closely are the main cause of deaths.

[tallguy]

Penalize the results of behavior, Not the cause. A better learning tool.

[BlueJDMMR]

Alcohol has a negligible effect on driving at lower ends of BAC content. Most fatal DWI's are at the higher end of the spectrum such as .17 BAC. For that matter however, you can get a DWI for as little as .03 BAC.
Hell, you can get a DWI on a bicycle. You can get a DWI for sleeping off alcohol in the back seat of your car. These laws give the appearance that they're making society safer. In reality, they're smaller laws being pieced together by anti-alcohol groups to enact prohibition.

[yadinandyanay]

usually agree with libertarians but cmon, if youre stopped at a DUI checkpoint and have a significant BAC, even if you havent committed a serious traffic violation or caused damage yet, it's a significant predictor of the likelihood that youre going to crash between that checkpoint and your home

[thecallfam]

I’ve made this same argument for years, except I substitute cell phone laws for drunk driving laws.
I’m not promoting either drinking or cell use while driving, but laws singling out a particular reason for some people’s bad driving are too specific and therefore lead to dumb situations as described in the video.

[tharock]

If this guy wants to get rid of per se dui laws then I'm on board. The .08 threshold is little more than a tool to increase drunk driving convictions. If you're .07 and it can be proved that you're impared, you're still getting convicted, and you should be. The .08 thing should be repealed though. Drunk driving convictions should be predicated on whether or not the person driving is a danger behind the wheel, not some arbitrary limit.

[thekekronomicon]

DUI law: that guy burned our crops and poisoned our water supply

Drunk driver: I did?

DUI law: no but are we just gonna sit around and wait tell he does.

[GetMeThere]

A lot of people are on the roads driving AS THOUGH they were drunk -- slow reaction times, inattentiveness. The cause: cell phones/texting.