Police breath testing

[Genestho]

5 out of 2009 Riders is a pretty good innings possibly compared to Friday night up town, and well done to those who at least heeded the warnings, but, unfortunately it does only cause one person to cause mass carnage.

Three hours does seem a long time to be inconvenienced, perhaps things could've been done better - I wouldn't know, I wouldn't want to do that job...

But I tell ya what, 3 years and not just my life has been understatedly inconvenienced, think yourselves lucky that it were only 3 hours, and you got to ride home to your family after.

If the police have saved any of your lives by doing this - which you'll never know, that has to be a good thing? This thread indicates many were aware and parked up, good stuff.



Cheers.

[Ixion]

Perhaps the five were youff? It doesn't takeuch to go over the low youff limit- just residual from the night before maybe? I doubt that anyone would feel any effect at the youff limit.

Four hours seems a long delay. I must say I, d be pissed at such a delay that could seriously impact travel plans, bookings etc. it's very easy for police to be pious about " any delay is worth it if it gets one driver off the road etc" . But usually people are committed to travel plans which don't have 4 hours slack in them. And any safety benefit from the " one less driver" etc is likely to be negated by the greater hazards of 2000 bikers despatetly trying to make up that 4 hours or by 2000 bikers having to ride through the night because of the delay. Isn't fatigued driving supposed to be as bad as drink driving. I think that's a bad attitude by the police. If they want to test the departing riders well and good but they need to roster in enough testers to ensure that there are not unreasonable delays.

[MarkH]

And, how pray do you find out who these innocents are???

If was held up and it took one drunk iriot off the roads I was about to share I'd be happy.

Why not blame the drunks that are the reason such booze-bus operations are held???

I wasn't saying that there isn't a need to get the drunks off the road - just that I'd be pissed off at being held up for 4 hours. I also wasn't saying that I didn't place any blame on the drunks.

It's just that the times I have been through a police checkpoint they haven't significantly inconveniences me and I don't generally mind them (apart from the time that the nice looking police woman asked me to say my name and address when I was barely able to - I just mumbled into the sniffer "I've just been to the dentist"). But being delayed by several hours seems to be pretty bad IMO, much more than the normal minimal inconvenience.

[scumdog]

just that I'd be pissed off at being held up for 4 hours.

I thought it was three - or even less?

[MarkH]

I thought it was three - or even less?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald...lice-operation
"What normally takes an hour took five hours as we had to have people diverting traffic flow."

Well, the stuff.co.nz article suggested that 4 hours had been added to the time to get the bikes out of there - that seems like a pretty huge inconvenience to me. Tough titties to the 5 over the limiit, but a bit of a bugger to the other 2000.

[AD345]

The drink-drive hysteria is one of the biggest beat-ups of the 21st century. Trying to get definitive numbers of people found to be over the limit versus total number of people tested is proving more difficult than I'd hoped it would be but what I've found so far is that it would seem to be between 1% and 3%.

So between 97% and 99% of all drivers on the road are NOT under the influence

As a country we should be a lot more proud of that than we are instead of continually being harangued by "the powers that be" on how we are all guilty until proven innocent and that the evils of drink drivers threaten to undermine the entire fabric of civilisation

piss off

[red mermaid]

Tell that to the families of the people killed each year by drunk drivers (not forgetting those with serious injuries) and see what they think of your conclusion.

I doubt you will get any sort of agreement.

The only comment you have made that makes any sense is "piss off" and as it says, lay off the piss if you intend to drive.

[AD345]

Tell that to the families of the people killed each year by drunk drivers (not forgetting those with serious injuries) and see what they think of your conclusion.

I doubt you will get any sort of agreement.

The only comment you have made that makes any sense is "piss off" and as it says, lay off the piss if you intend to drive.

The standard response - the party line. Yawn

Sorry mate but I am not responsibile for any of those deaths and neither is anyone I know. Making me and thousands of others prove my innocence time after time after fucking time is not going to bring anyone back

the war is over

it's been won

By all means keep the message in the front of everyone that is it not OK to drink and drive, keep reinforcing that it is socially unacceptable (cos it is, and rightly so) but stop fucking treating me like a criminal

[scumdog]

the war is over

it's been won

By all means keep the message in the front of everyone that is it not OK to drink and drive, keep reinforcing that it is socially unacceptable (cos it is, and rightly so) but stop fucking treating me like a criminal

The 'war' is not won - drop the pressure and the drink-driving will increase

And nobody is treating you like a criminal mate - not until you get pinged for DIC anyway....

[3umph]

I left sat morn as I had something else on (bugger it) so did not see the checkpoint... I may be dumb... but ... so a 3-4 hour delay it took people to leave the venue??? that a load of shit... so the first rider leaving took 4 hours through the checkpoint???

or it took people longer to leave then usual as they were not in a rush to go throught and line up for the checkpiont...

so how long did it take for someone at the busy part of leaving to get through?? 20min? 30min? 1 hour or more??? can not see it being an extra 3 hours for someone to go through... how long was the checkpoint there for?

quite honestly I think every rally and big sporting events etc should be targeted at some time... and to give people that tink they are on the limit time to think about there levels and stay off the road and have a bite to eat to help soak up the excess prior to leaving is a good thing...


Test screening would of been nice but whatif you screened ok then failed the checkpoint... maybe people need to invest in personal testers if they think they are going to have some hard nights at rallies so they can have a better indercation if they are over or under...

I'm sure I myself has driven the day after but still over the limit... and may look at getting my own tester for piece of mind or a guide

[MarkH]

I left sat morn as I had something else on (bugger it) so did not see the checkpoint... I may be dumb... but ... so a 3-4 hour delay it took people to leave the venue??? that a load of shit... so the first rider leaving took 4 hours through the checkpoint???

That just doesn't make sense - surely the first person was pretty darned luckly to be first and got through within a couple of minutes. But half an hour after people started leaving I bet there was a big queue waiting to get through that bottle neck.

Personally I don't get too bothered if I am held up for 5 minutes due to a police booze checkpoint - it is worth it to get the dangerous drunks off the road. If I am held up for 10 minutes I get annoyed and can't help wonder if the police could have done a better job of the time/placement/whatever of the checkpoint. Once I am held up for over 15 minutes I am thoroughly pissed off - when I have done nothing wrong why should I suffer through a long wait like that? I would guarentee there must have been riders that had a ferry to catch - it seems a bit off to make those people miss their ferry.

The checkpoint I went through after the Cold Duck Rally didn't bother me in the least, held me up for less than 2 minutes. Of course it wasn't just outside the gates to the venue so any bikes coming through that checkpoint were well spread out. Surely the police should work hard to avoid pissing off the law abiding majority while trying to nab the criminal minority?

[AD345]

The 'war' is not won - drop the pressure and the drink-driving will increase

And nobody is treating you like a criminal mate - not until you get pinged for DIC anyway....

Define the the criteria for victory then. If it is more than a 97% success rate it's bullshit. if the aim is to have no-one get hurt by a drink-driver then take vehicles off the road.

There is no other option

You treat me like a criminal every time you enter my life and demand that I prove my innocence - thats what a check point is. A search without cause from which I cannot abstain. Failure to comply with a breathtest at a checkpoint is taken as evidence of guilt

THAT is bullshit. THAT is state control at it's extreme and I will (and already am) be fucked off with everyone involved every single time. No point telling me that it is the fault of the drink-drivers that we have these check points - we have already shown that they are unnecessary - 97% (minimum) of the population already complies with the law!

It's a power trip by politicans and senior police - nothing more nothing less than state control.

[MarkH]

THAT is state control at it's extreme

I think you are going a bit far there - speaking into a sniffer so that the police can find out if you have alcahol on your breath doesn't seem that extreme to me. If the police can be orginised well enough so that the motorists aren't unduly held up from going about their business then I have no real problem with it.

Does anyone know how long the bikers leaving around the middle of the Rally exodus were held up? i.e. rider #1004 of 2009 had to wait for how long? It really seems that 2004 bikers were held up for quite a long time so that the police could find those 5 idiots. Getting those .25% off the road was good, inconveniencing the other 99.75% would have made this a negative PR exercise - not the best police work IMO.

[AD345]

I think you are going a bit far there - speaking into a sniffer so that the police can find out if you have alcahol on your breath doesn't seem that extreme to me. If the police can be orginised well enough so that the motorists aren't unduly held up from going about their business then I have no real problem with it.

.

Its not the time nor the conveience of it

"afternoon sir. Please spend the next 2 minutes proving you did not rape your neighbours grandhcild by blowing in this bag. If you don't blow in the bag you will be arrested, charged and found guilty of having committed the offence"

It's not ME that's going too far

[scumdog]

Its not the time nor the conveience of it

"afternoon sir. Please spend the next 2 minutes proving you did not rape your neighbours grandhcild by blowing in this bag. If you don't blow in the bag you will be arrested, charged and found guilty of having committed the offence"

It's not ME that's going too far

"Hey, I'll tell ya what offisher, I ain't blowing into that silly thingamabob you've got and then ya can't prove I'm pished to shee ya later" -THAT is what you would like to see instead????

(Just chucking in the opposite end of the spectrum)