clv101 said:
These threads always get far too extreme. It's all shades of grey - driving at 100mph is significantly more dangerous than driving at 60mph, driving just over the drink drive limit is not significantly more dangerous than driving just under the limit. And as for driving tired, that can be every bit as dangerous as driving twice over the limit.
Whilst driving drunk is certainly dangerous, it doesn't deserve the relative lambasting it gets compared to speeding, driving tired, driving a non-roadworthy car or just being a rubbish driver not paying attention to the road. All these impairments can range from not being very dangerous to being lethal. It's not black and white.
I don't agree.
Just because I have utter contempt for drink driving doesn't imply any tolerance for other driving offences. But speeding is a different category of issue. For a start, doing 100mph on the fast lane of a motorway (say, M45) at 3AM on a Tuesday morning, in good weather, may be considerably safer than doing 80mph, or even 50mph on a motorway in heavy traffic, let alone ice, snow or fog. It's also probably safer than doing 35 in a 30 limit outside a surburban school at school turn-out time.
Speed is also something you can alter rapidly to react to circumstance, but if youy're driving drunk, you're driving drunk 'til you stop driving.
As for things like driving an unroadworthy car, well, there I tend to agree, providing you either know it is or should have had reason to suspect. But providing you have regular, competent servicing, it is still possible a fault could develop that the driver had no reasonable way to know about. It's unlikely he didn't, however, know that he was drinking.
But I also with with Dolph. Speed doesn't kill, but inappropriate speed certainly does. I don't see 73 in a 70 limit as a huge, if any, increase in risk, but I agree with those that say any alcohol is too much if driving. Given that, the law does provide a fair degree of latitude from 'zero' alcohol, so anybody going over that (short of spiked drinks, etc) deserves whatever they get, and if that means losing your job because you lost your licence, so be it.
Well you learn something new every day 
