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Health & Fitness

The Insanity of Drinking and Driving Laws

Why the current laws surrounding the problem of drinking and driving do not make sense.

A while back, I read a news article about a woman facing jail time for giving her car keys to a drunk man.

The twist in this story?

The woman knew she was too intoxicated to drive, so she asked her boyfriend if he could drive for her. He said yes, had a car accident, and now she's at fault.  

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The logic here is that the boyfriend was too drunk to refuse to accept the car keys, so the law holds the other drunk person at fault. The worst part here is that if the woman had driven her own car and gotten into a car accident, she would be facing less severe penalties.

I wonder if we, as a society, could get more screwed up over drinking and driving.

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In my opinion, the problem is that we view the decision of whether to drive or not at the point of departure. But the real decision point is not after a person drinks, but before.  

A person is responsible for arranging transportation to and from a bar (or house or wherever) before that person takes a single drink. If a person chooses not to make arrangements, then it doesn't matter what the circumstances are afterwards.  

It doesn't matter whether a bartender serves them several drinks.  

It doesn't matter if someone sells the person enough alcohol for a year.  

By not providing for transportation while sober, that person is guilty of drinking and driving. Period.

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