Double fatal crash, Rotorua (29 April)

[placidfemme]

and every single one of us in this thread is a little safer because of it.

sad but true

[Chrislost]

this story has been told again and again - recidivist diaqualified/drunk driver kills innocents.

unfortunately, calling for zero tolerance to this kind of driving ignores the obvious - the only way to carry out this level of policing is to, well, have more cops on the road. triple the number of booze bus check points. setting up stings at hotels waiting for drunks to drive. waiting outside recidivist drunks houses waiting for them to drive. you get the picture. there's no point 'having a chat' to these guys prior to them driving (haven't committed an offence yet) so they have to get as far as moving the car.

when the 3 times the current number of traffic cops are carrying out this zero tolerance regime, what do you think they'll be doing in their downtime?

pinging speeders for 111km/h.

be careful what you wish for.

actually if they spent more time looking for drunk drivers and less time sitting around giving speeding tickets they probably could easily half the number of drunks on the roads.
be simple as to put a permant booze bus somewhere(like a road toll but you pay nothign if ur all good)

[marty]

unfortunately the public has deemed (through parliament and Local Authorities) a spread of enforcement across all sectors - speeding, drink driving, education etc, so unless there is a huge shift in demand, or increase in enforcement numbers, that isn't going to happen.

and a permanent booze bus check point? now THERE'S a well thought out enforcement measure. it would be as effective as deterring drink driving as a speed camera is for speeding on Dominion Rd.

[socialites]

unfortunately the public has deemed (through parliament and Local Authorities) a spread of enforcement across all sectors - speeding, drink driving, education etc, so unless there is a huge shift in demand, or increase in enforcement numbers, that isn't going to happen.

and a permanent booze bus check point? now THERE'S a well thought out enforcement measure. it would be as effective as deterring drink driving as a speed camera is for speeding on Dominion Rd.

Less pointless speeding fines(111km/hr) and more drunk driving stings. Drunk driver kills inocent person/s should equal Death Sentence.

[KATWYN]

i have no pity for his family... i dont know whether he was with them or alone, or what he was doing with those kids. but either way, someone should have stepped in and prevented this from happening. knock the prick senseless if need be...

In a perfect world, it's easier said than done.

Ok, so you knock em senseless this time around...then what do you do for the other 23 hours and 15 minutes of their day? Short of shackling them to a lampost or fence post or whatever, hiding the keys, disabling their vehicles what would you suggest a family member needs to do to control & restrain these drunks from getting behind the wheel of A vehicle?

[yungatart]

My opinion, FWIW...leave the drunk driver's family out of this!
My ex-husband had 16 convictions for drunk driving...up until the time I left him (more since, plus jail time). I had not a shit show in hell of stopping him from driving, yeah, I could hide the keys etc etc - and get the bash for my troubles.
When I was at work I had no control over wether he decided to put our kids in the car and go down to his local to get trollied.
Some of you are acting like his family quite happily put the kids in the car with a drunk - how the hell do you know if they were even there at the time?

BTW - ex still regularly drives drunk! His convictions go back to 1976!

[Mrs Busa Pete]

In a perfect world, it's easier said than done.

Ok, so you knock em senseless this time around...then what do you do for the other 23 hours and 15 minutes of their day? Short of shackling them to a lampost or fence post or whatever, hiding the keys, disabling their vehicles what would you suggest a family member needs to do to control & restrain these drunks from getting behind the wheel of A vehicle?

Ring the bloody cops if you cant get through dail 111.

[Patrick]

[QUOTE=peasea;1037069]

Yup, that'll give a reasonably fair indication of who's at fault, surely? The likelihood of a sober driver cruising along and hitting a drunk have to be pretty slim, right?

Slim... but have struck it... North Shore, sober driver U turned in front of drunk... Good way to catch a drunk tho...

[Ixion]

Well, when it's a contest between drunkenness and native stupidity, it's a toss up which will win.

[Kendog]

My opinion, FWIW...leave the drunk driver's family out of this!
My ex-husband had 16 convictions for drunk driving...up until the time I left him (more since, plus jail time). I had not a shit show in hell of stopping him from driving, yeah, I could hide the keys etc etc - and get the bash for my troubles.
When I was at work I had no control over wether he decided to put our kids in the car and go down to his local to get trollied.
Some of you are acting like his family quite happily put the kids in the car with a drunk - how the hell do you know if they were even there at the time?

BTW - ex still regularly drives drunk! His convictions go back to 1976!

That's a sad story, good on ya for fronting up and posting it.

But, if he killed three bikers (or your kids/any innocent person) when you were together, would you not feel any responsibility?

[Patrick]

actually if they spent more time looking for drunk drivers and less time sitting around giving speeding tickets they probably could easily half the number of drunks on the roads.
be simple as to put a permant booze bus somewhere(like a road toll but you pay nothign if ur all good)

Makes it hard to get drink drivers when the first one caught at the small town checkpoint rings the pub and tells the publican, who in turn tells the punters were the booze bus is so they can avoid it...

Anyone stopped for any reason (don't like the look of him/her; shes pretty; weaving driver; no lights; speeding whatever...) these days/nights will be routinely tested.

[peasea]

Slim... but have struck it... North Shore, sober driver U turned in front of drunk... Good way to catch a drunk tho...

I'd wager that wouldn't happen too often in a lifetime. You must have laughed your arse off.

[yungatart]

That's a sad story, good on ya for fronting up and posting it.

But, if he killed three bikers (or your kids/any innocent person) when you were together, would you not feel any responsibility?

I would have felt gutted, absolutely gutted. Responsible, no!
There is nothing I could have done to prevent him driving - or drinking, either, for that matter. Believe me, I tried, on both counts, and failed misserably. Just because I married him does not mean I was responsible for his behaviour, as an adult, he made his own choices and had to wear the consequences of them....just like our driver in this incident.
There is no way that his family can be held responsible for his actions - especially when we don't know the facts!

[peasea]

There is nothing I could have done to prevent him driving - or drinking, either, for that matter.

Been there, done that, even copped a bit of biffo for trying to prevent a drunk from driving, man, they get shitty-as. You get the whole "I'll decide when I can't drive" blah blah and when they're in that state you can't reason with them. Sure, you can make the phone call but tempus fugit.............

[Mom]

i have no pity for his family... i dont know whether he was with them or alone, or what he was doing with those kids. but either way, someone should have stepped in and prevented this from happening

A person with a record like this is not just like you and I my friend. This man obviously had a serious problem with alcohol, probably other things as well, things that we are hearing more and more about these days. You can not condemn his family for not stopping him, as you have no idea the what the circumstances were at the time he put those kiddies in his car. Yes I have read the reports that witnesses say he had been drinking before you bring that to my attention. As Marty has already pointed out there is an element that is very much alive and well in our society that do not have the same values regarding drink driving or anything else for that matter as you and I do.

As a person that was raised by an alcoholic, I can tell you that no matter what you do or say that person will not change their behaviour unless they want to, it is an illness.

That being said, I feel anger and deeply saddened about what happened, my heartfelt sympathy goes out to the families and friends of three bikers that were wiped out by this dickheads actions. I weep for the children that were involved in such an horrific incident, and my sympathies must also go to the family and friends of the *insert the word/s of your choice* that was responsible.