Honest poll: did you ever drink and drive?

rojo wrote:

Nice to see a serious tone to this thread.

Hope this doesn't kill that tone but do you really think there is anything wrong with eating fast food late at night? Are you trying to compare that to driving drunk?

I think he's speaking more to the distance running side of things. As a recent grad, I can attest to many nights of stuffing my face while drunk, and then feeling like absolute crap on long runs the next day. He definitely doesn't think eating fast food late at night is as bad as drunk driving. But the drunk munchies just put unnecessary calories in the body. I always feel the worst on those types of mornings. You know, after scoffing down 2 crunchwrap supremes.

To the OP, I've never driven drunk. I learned a lesson from my older brother, who flipped his car, fracturing his skull. I've designated a lot though (it's a good way to score).

Dread nots wrote:

Yes, a few times. Always feel like a moron the next day.

I'm actually more scared by the times I've driven on no sleep. Drunk driving, you can at least try to be careful. Tired driving, there's not much you can do but hope nobody does anything dumb around you. My uncle almost killed himself falling asleep at the wheel.

This is a good point; I have actually fallen asleep at the wheel more than once, even just at a red light driving home from work. It's a wonder I didn't cause an accident. At least when I was in my 20's and driving home drunk from the bar, I was careful and followed the speed limit. I know it sounds dumb but I was a WAY better driver when drunk.

Never driven drunk, no plans to. It really is insane.

I have once (accidentally) driven while extremely high. I ate an entire weed chocolate bar and forgot about it while at a girl's house with a friend. After 2.5 (sober) hours at her house I went to drive us home, assuming that it would not take effect if it hadn't already.

About 5 minutes into my 22-mile drive down the highways of LA, I suddenly became extremely high. Like, so high that I could not remember what had happened ~30 seconds ago. I was like a goldfish; I kept looking up and thinking "How did I just end up on the freeway? Didn't I just leave her house?". This was not the common sort of relaxed high driving, this was me pretty much blacking out high (I even felt a bit like puking). I would have stopped, but my friend convinced me we needed to get back home ASAP. Then, at 1AM, we hit bumper-to-bumper traffic. Don't ask me how that's possible, it's one of the wonders of LA. My memory is pretty much blank after that, but my friend kept telling me when I needed to turn and somehow I ended up in a bed the next morning. I will never, ever do that again.

Peace Out wrote:

Dread nots wrote:

Yes, a few times. Always feel like a moron the next day.

I'm actually more scared by the times I've driven on no sleep. Drunk driving, you can at least try to be careful. Tired driving, there's not much you can do but hope nobody does anything dumb around you. My uncle almost killed himself falling asleep at the wheel.

This is a good point; I have actually fallen asleep at the wheel more than once, even just at a red light driving home from work. It's a wonder I didn't cause an accident. At least when I was in my 20's and driving home drunk from the bar, I was careful and followed the speed limit. I know it sounds dumb but I was a WAY better driver when drunk.

No, you think you are a WAY better driver when drunk. You probably drive slow and make sure you take extra caution at stop signs and stoplights. That's easy. But if you get in a situation that might require immediate reaction or space off for a few seconds, you will perform worse.

Also, I'm really surprised by the amount of people that are not admitting to driving drunk.

I love drink driving, I wish there were no laws!

clearing the bs up wrote:

For all you idiots who drink and drive watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej_2uT7D8yI

Would definitely hit before her accident.

After, not so much. Word.

not really wrote:

Never driven drunk, no plans to. It really is insane.

That's the thing, few people actually plan on it. It's usually a case of "I'll drink a few, take it easy and sober up and I'll be ok," and then forgetting (or ignoring) the need to sober up.

No. I have never consumed alcohol in my life.

However, I bear the permanent scars and injuries caused by a drunk driver hitting me head-on thirteen years ago.

Rojo, of course I don't see them as being the same. That was a small joke in the middle of a serious post. I can only be totally serious for so long. While I have never had anything serious happen to me, I know people whose lives were minorly inconvenienced (DUI, accident) and people whose liveS were partially/totally destroyed (death or loss of family or friends) due to drunk driving. I know I was lucky and make a point to remember that and not rely on it. Conscious and deliberate.

I actually drove drunk for the very first time just last week. I was at a party where I had consumed a few and things got out of hand with some of the people there and I just decided I had to leave immediately. Thank God the roads were clear the whole way back, I would have never been able to live with myself if anything had happened.

On a somewhat-similar note, how many people text and drive regularly? I recently dropped the habit but I would imagine it's just as dangerous as driving drunk or while tired.

18 years old

drunk as a f'in skunk

darkness

motorcycle

wheelies

traffic -wrongway to boot

No memory of actually driving and the wheelies just the stories from those who saw it.

Swore I'd never be that stupid or drunk again. That was the most I ever drank and sure I did a lot of other stupid things in my life(marrying Princess Aura a second time for one) but not one of them has been fired by booze.

Since then(48years) have not driven one foot with a drink in my system. Once at a summer party I refused to even play driveway jockey to let another car out. They had to move my car move theirs and move mine back and I was only in the middle of my second light beer at the time.

Açaí wrote:

On a somewhat-similar note, how many people text and drive regularly? I recently dropped the habit but I would imagine it's just as dangerous as driving drunk or while tired.

Texting and driving is just as bad or worse than driving drunk, but only while you're texting. Unlike driving drunk, you aren't texting the whole time you're driving.

They say driving on 4 hours of sleep is similar to driving drunk (at least as far as reaction time), which is pretty scary when you think about it. At any given time half the drivers on the road are probably sleep deprived.

It doesn't help that in my state, 1st offense OWI is an ordinance violation, treated the same as a parking ticket.

3 times while in college and I'll never do it again. Never did it while really drunk, but was definitely well over the legal limit all three times. Didn't find it difficult to drive any of the three times because driving conditions were virtually perfect, very simple routes, no cars on the road, etc. I can imagine that it would be insanely dangerous to drive drunk under anything other than these conditions, however (not that what I did wasn't very dangerous and stupid). You're just so unprepared for any sort of quick decision making.

Back in my drinking days, I just took a nap in my car if I had too many. I guy did try to break in to my car once and didn't notice me sleeping in the back seat.

Wat? I can't believe this thread.

Of course NOT! DWI's are a serious deal, I can't believe people do it so flippantly. You're in control of a 2,500 to 5,000 pound object moving anywhere from 25-70MPH depending on speed limit! What about responsibility?!

Sorry, DUI's. (Don't know what a DWI is. Ha)And for the inevitable questions about whether I do any dangers things while driving...take a drink from my water bottle on the highway when there is very little traffic.This thread is why I try to limit driving after midnight when the drunks and druggies drive crazy (some AMA studies have shown, logically, that the incidence of accidents due to impaired driving increase markedly after midnight or so) and leave at least 2 seconds of distance between my car and the next one.Another thing is...why don't people use their turn signals? I drove an hour on the highway yesterday and literally 15% of cars used turn signals to indicate lane changes. When they did, it was often only for half a second. How the heck does a half second turn signal flashing help nearby drivers prepare for the traffic maneuver?!

chinocochio wrote:

Wat? I can't believe this thread.

Of course NOT! DWI's are a serious deal, I can't believe people do it so flippantly. You're in control of a 2,500 to 5,000 pound object moving anywhere from 25-70MPH depending on speed limit! What about responsibility?!

To be fair and comprehensive, statistics show that tens of thousands of Americans are badly injured or killed every year in car accidents in which alcohol and drugs were not a factor.

Driving is a very risky endeavor. Drinking and/or drugging makes it much riskier. But completely sober driving is also very dangerous

go out once/twice a week. Dont get smashed but probably have 8-10 beers on a 130 pound frame over 4 hours.

Just buckle up, go slow, and follow all the rules. Im actually pay more attention when drunk.