Police breath testing

[teach]

The call went out at what seemed like 6am Sunday morning at the March hare rally (just gone) that the police were stopping ALL riders leaving the venue, and breath testing them. Surely there would have been a better publicity stunt if the police came inside the venue and said for your own safety check that you are safe and under the limit before you leave as you may get stopped outside on the main road.
Then they could have saved tax payers money by not needing the boose bus there and only half the staff to help check everyone.
Wouldnt that have been the right thing to do???

[scumdog]

They COULD have done as you suggested.

I suspect since the law says you have to have beeen riding/driving before they can require you to undergo a breath screening test they did the test on those actually riding.

Plus people have in the past have asked to be tested, passed - then a half hour later been stopped and been over the limit - and then screamed blue murder about how they had beene tested and were not over the limit yadda yadda yadda..

At the end of the day it is surprising they haven't realy targetted people leaving rallies, going by comments made by some of those KBers who went to the March Hare last year it's long overdue, I for one dont' want to share the roads with any more drunk drivers/riders than I have to.

Personal responsibility people, personal responsibility..if you get pinged for DIC it is YOUR fault and yours alone.

[grusomhat]

The call went out at what seemed like 6am Sunday morning at the March hare rally (just gone) that the police were stopping ALL riders leaving the venue, and breath testing them. Surely there would have been a better publicity stunt if the police came inside the venue and said for your own safety check that you are safe and under the limit before you leave as you may get stopped outside on the main road.
Then they could have saved tax payers money by not needing the boose bus there and only half the staff to help check everyone.
Wouldnt that have been the right thing to do???

Well it sounds like that's exactly what happened. Just done a bit differently.

[Owl]

Personal responsibility people, personal responsibility..if you get pinged for DIC it is YOUR fault and yours alone.

No real argument against that!

[JimO]

i find it hard to believe that the people that are so pissed at 2am that they cant stand up or walk can get on their bikes at 8am and be sober enough to share the road with the rest of us

[scumdog]

i find it hard to believe that the people that are so pissed at 2am that they cant stand up or walk can get on their bikes at 8am and be sober enough to share the road with the rest of us

They can't.

[JimO]

They can't.

and thats the truth

[98tls]

I asked one of them if i could blow the guage thing to see if i was over,he declined but did give me the reason as SD posted,which makes sense to me,i wasnt 100% sure so simply found a shady spot as did a few others and gave it some time and food,all good.The end result was 5 got busted,surely theres no one to blame but yourself if you know there at the gate and you still ride out knowing theres a chance you could be over.If instead of having it at the gate they had put them a few kms north/south the numbers would have been higher i am certain.Good on them i say they at least they had it all right there,the decision to go was entirely up to oneself.

[JimO]

im surprised there wasnt a checkpoint at the vincent

[CookMySock]

The end result was 5 got busted

How many people at the event? Surely five is a small number?

I make no excuses for those five, but it sounds to me potentially 50% of the people riding out could be over.

Why not just smoke dope instead? The next morning you are straight as an arrow.. and surely a much better time to be had..

Steve

[Fatjim]

I look back with fondness at the time a copper let me blow in the machine just before I got on the bike. It goes to show that there are decent human beings who are coppers.

However, I have to disagree with Scummies propsed reasoning for not letting people test their limit for the following reasons

1. If a machine that is calibrated and is used to insist someone accompany a cop to a station for the purposes.... can get it "wrong", then how can the person who has drunk a few beers know where he's at.
2. there's no answer to being under the limit when you start driving, and being over the limit 30 minutes later because of alchohol limits. Shit happens.
3. The obvious one, to let a drunk drive untill he hits a check point is worse than showing him he shouldn't drive at all. It goes against all the rhetoric we constantly see about crime prevention.


In my view, the more positive interaction the police have with members of the public, before they become "criminals" the better. Because lately, its been mostly negative.

[98tls]

How many people at the event? Surely five is a small number?

I make no excuses for those five, but it sounds to me potentially 50% of the people riding out could be over.

Why not just smoke dope instead? The next morning you are straight as an arrow.. and surely a much better time to be had..

Steve

They ran out of Badges mid Saturday afternoon at 2800,to be honest to me 5 seems a huge number considering they were right outside the gate,would have to be the 5 dumbest people out of 3000 or so surely,as for smoking dope whatever floats ya boat i guess.

[98tls]

In my view, the more positive interaction the police have with members of the public, before they become "criminals" the better. Because lately, its been mostly negative.

From where i stand having it outside the gate was positive,there not babysitters,it was all out in the open and the choice to get on the bike was entirely up to each rider.They could have easily been lets say "less positive ways of going about it"just my 2c.

[Indoo]

1. If a machine that is calibrated and is used to insist someone accompany a cop to a station for the purposes.... can get it "wrong", then how can the person who has drunk a few beers know where he's at.

By not drinking to the point where they are even close to the limit, its not like its a target.

2. there's no answer to being under the limit when you start driving, and being over the limit 30 minutes later because of alchohol limits. Shit happens.

And if a cop tells someone they are ok to drive at the venue and said person takes off and crashes & dies shortly there after and a later blood test shows he's over the limit who is that shit going to land on? I know who the media and his family will be blaming...

3. The obvious one, to let a drunk drive untill he hits a check point is worse than showing him he shouldn't drive at all. It goes against all the rhetoric we constantly see about crime prevention.

I'd say it would be alot worse to tell a few hundred people they are ok to drive as a result of what will be at the time an inaccurate reading resulting in many going on to ride and be over the limit or close enough to it to be a danger. How many of them will also think that because they blew under that means they are ok to drive regardless of how pissed they actually feel?

Five stupid drunks got caught and got what they deserved, how many drink driving offences did they actually prevent by putting a checkpoint right outside the venue as opposed to how many offences they would have caused by testing inside it?

[Broomrider]

We were told about the booze bus being there as early as Friday. The girls were standing at the gate stopping every biker and telling them, so no one had an excuse. It was those riders leaving at 3, 4 and 5 in the morning I suspect may have been avoiding to cops for what ever reason...sadly it's me, my family and friends who are on the roads with the drunks... I agree by being at the gate they stopped a lot of potential drunk drivers from being on the road... I would rather be put off my bike by a cop than be scraped off the road by one.