19 December 2007

DUI = Moron

| Skidbladnir
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Media release from Canberra’s Macho Macho Men (And Women)
ABC Online Coverage

Apparently we (as ACT residents) are far and away the worst offenders (ACT average: 1 in 55 drivers, National average: 1 in 182) for driving under the influence.

Considering its the silly season and all, a timely reminder to take extra care on the road, as apparently 1.8 out of every 100 cars on our roads is over the limit, in addition to the usual road-raging morons, the speeding morons, the unroadworthy morons, and the Volvo drivers.

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I agree. I think in Canberra the overall hit rate of drink drivers is around 1=50 tests or thereabouts.

Though when they do target campaigns the hit rate drops to 1=4 tests.

Government sets the 100 000 quota but doesn’t provide the staff to make that quota pro actively. So the result is 100 000 tests and about 2000 drink drivers a year on our roads. Thats a pretty good stat from the gov point of view. But reality says its really about 25000 drink drivers a year.

I agree, it just seems too simple. Have them at the exit of the big carparks (so they can’t see them and just take another route home) and they’ll be forced not to drive home! Surely we have enough money to cover two carparks in Civic and one random one (for those driving home from parties or other clubs) on one night.

Or do you mean social clubs Thumper? Either way, I just can’t believe that the cost of that outweighs the costs of lives/injuries/insurance claims for single car accidents etc.

Give the cops a “win” for every dui they catch. That’d give them the incentive to stalk the areas where they’d catch them. Who needs police doing silly pointless rbts? Put them out where they can catch their prey quickly, so they actually do some policing.

it’s supposed to be a RANDOM test, otherwise it’s an unwarranted search, not something we want more of.

They should rewrite the contract so that each person that is court over the limit is the equivilent of say, 50 negitive tests? Whatever the numbers, make it more time efficient for the police to catch drink drivers rather then doing lots of tests to fill quota’s.

Yes the AFP have a contract with the ACT government to perform 100,000 breath tests per year, thats one every 3 years people! I suspect some people who drive the common routes the AFP picks get done a lot whilst others never see the RBT’s.

Plenty are done during the day and even the morning, we even catch a few at these times also. Having a target presents problems though given it takes approximately 2 hours to process a drink driver. If the AFP only did it late at night they would have a much higher hit rate but a lot less overall tests given the amount of resources it would take up.

One of those catch 22 situations. I personally think the AFP should be targeting specific areas with high hit rates rather then doing large but often ineffective numbers to keep the ACT Govt happy.

The Queanbeyan cops sit on the NSW side of the railway bridge at the entrance to Jerra doing RBT at least a couple of times a month. I’ve been breath tested there half a dozen times in the last two years. Good on em.

Probably the reason Police do it in the morning is to get the numbers up without too many pissed drivers. Pissed drivers equal paper work and time. Its the government that sets the quota, which I think is about 100 000 a year. Maybe they should fund more Police and set up a RBT Team.

Ingeegoodbee7:41 pm 19 Dec 07

That’s a good point our black and white feline friend. I was last RBT’d on Bolderwood St in Turner about 14 or 15 years ago. I’d had three schooys at the Stockade in a little over an hour and got in just under the then limit of .08

I’m sure that the AFP was persuing some targetted strategy for RBTs – apparently rather than wasting heaps of resources testing peak hour traffic, they were modelling piss-head behaviour and zooming in on trouble spots – if that’s true you might expect these results to be good news, unless you wanted to use the results to spin a liitle bogus fear a la speed cameras.

Felix the Cat7:17 pm 19 Dec 07

I hadn’t been pulled over for a RBT in literally years until yesterday at about 4pm in Anzac Parade. Pretty cute cop chick did my breath test too! I was almost tempted to drive around the block and hope she would wave me in again…

Damn, a bit far for me…

Wests at Jamo do a courtesy bus.

I had a hit of golf on Friday out at Gold Creek and on the way home, about 5.30 I saw one RBT setup right near the entry to Harcourt Hill and other one setup near the top of Charnwood/Fraser. Both going the opposite way to me.

before that the only time I had seen them was on Belconnen Way in peak hour on Tuesday/Wednesday morning.

When I was at Uni I worked at a club (not in Canberra) and they had courtesy buses that dropped people home every half hour. It was a great service. I can’t believe it’s not more popular in the service industry. They’d get loads more patrons (who would spend a lot more) if they knew they’d get driven home!

“Maybe alot of these DUI’s couldn’t catch a cab…”

Maybe a lot of these DUI’s are just plain irresponsible and deserve to be made an example of.
There should be absolutely no reason that justifies driving under the influence. Especially not because there aren’t taxis to catch!

I think that the most effective time for the police to set up RBTs is about 7pm, just down the road from any of Canberra’s pokie halls…(er, I mean clubs…) and catch the blokes how stopped in for a quick schooner or six after work.

I know my pay from this job and the last one went into my account at around 0030hrs on Thursday mornings.
There’s a Symonston Tavern not far from there, you’d possibly have a regular or two still hanging around.

@potts: I don’t think the “Its our community too” is meant to embrace corruption.

Another good point gladbag. To add to it, what about all the girls who don’t want to drink drive, but don’t want to be taken advantage of by a taxi driver either… (NB, not all taxi drivers are like this, but it does happen and it’s a scary fact)

The last RBT I experienced was on Wollongong St, Fyshwick at 9:15am on a Thursday morning. Effective. I know they can often catch people on ‘the morning after the night before’, but a Thursday morning?

Maybe alot of these DUI’s couldn’t catch a cab, or were unable to stand in a queue for over an hour whilst sozzled. Other cities have better transport infrastructure to help the inebriated get home easier. Fix up the ridiculous cab issues between 1am and 5am and the DUI rate may drop.

Absolutely Thumper. But it doesn’t have to be random. If people knew it was going to be there, they’d be forced to catch a taxi or arrange another way home. It should be about prevention through education, not necessarily about catching and shaming.

la mente torbida10:38 am 19 Dec 07

Maybe our planned road system makes it more difficult for drink-drivers to avoid an RBT than the rest of the country

Canberra is pretty bad with the whole RBT thing. I’ve seen a couple over the last few years – and they’ve all been on my way to work! While it’s scary to think some people are over the limit at that time of the morning (although I’m sure I’ve still been drunk when I woke up on occasion…) surely the police have a better chance of catching drink drivers at, say, 1am on a Saturday or Sunday morning??

They had a blitz on every car (so not an RBT) leaving the Civic policestation carpark at the end of October, but since then I’d not heard of any others.

Last RBT was about 7 months ago on Belconnen Way. Certainly don’t see them that often. I think a strong presence all year round is better than the one off event.

philbert83au9:34 am 19 Dec 07

It’s hardly surprsing so many have been caught. We passed three RBTs on Friday night which is more than I’ve seen this year. Elsewhere there is public knowledge that there will be RBT units out and about but in Canberra it’s so rare that drink drivers feel safe (wtf?) to do it.

Growling Ferret9:28 am 19 Dec 07

Before the Christmas blitz, when was the last time you saw an RBT in Canberra? People had become complacent and saw the risk of getting caught as low to very low.

Bring back the public shaming of DUI offenders in the Canberra Times!

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