HOW THE WORLD DEALS WITH DRUNK DRIVERS (check out Bulgaria and El Salvador)
Arizona: 1992 - 1st time offenders - 24 hrs in jail, $250 fine and 90 day license suspension. 2nd time offender within 3 yrs - 60 days in jail along with fines and license actions.
Australia: the names of the drivers are sent to the newspapers and are printed under the heading, “He’s Drunk and in Jail”- fine up to $1000 and/or 6 months in jail; 3 month minimum loss of license.
Austria: Drunk driving - no accident- fine of 5,000 to 30,000 Austrian shillings or prison up to 6 months. With an accident, the consequences are more severe.
Bulgaria: A second conviction results in execution.
Canada: 1st offense - fine between $50 and $2,000 or jail for 6 months or both. 2nd offense - from 14 days to 1 yr in jail. When the motor vehicle has caused bodily injury- jail up to 10 yrs; death - up to 14 yrs in jail.
Czechoslovakia: Jail up to 1 yr, reformatory measure, loss of drivers license and fines up to 50,000 crowns. A reformatory measure: confiscation of 10-25% of drivers salary. The court may also direct that he will be removed from his present position and employed in a less responsible job.
El Salvador: First offence is your last - you are shot by firing squad.
Finland & Sweden: Jail - 1 year hard labor plus fines. NOTE: in Finland, if an individual yields a vehicle to someone guilty of drunk driving, they will be fined or imprisoned for up to 1 year.
Japan: fine up to 30,000 to 50,000 yen or 3 months - 2 years penal servitude ( imprisonment with hard labor ) or jail.
Malaysia: the driver is jailed and if he is married, his wife is jailed too.
Norway: 3 weeks in jail at hard labor, 1 yr loss of license, 2nd offense within 5 yrs - license revoked for life.
Poland: jail, fines, political lectures.
"Drinking drivers/Nothing worse/They put the quart/Before the hearse/--BURMA SHAVE."
Thats bad, but it is an incentive not to commit the offence in the first place. I got arrested 11 years ago for DUI. In the UK, if your not charged within the first 11 months after the offence, they let you go. I had 12 days to go, and then got pulled for speeding. Then the summons to court came through. 12 month driving ban, £320 fine (about $640) £80 court costs (160) and an embarrassing court apperance, (I'd never been arrested before)
That was enough for me, eventhough I was drunk for most of the next 10 years, I never had even one drink before driving again.
Still, it's not as bad as Indonesia:
The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation.
I know I've not been here for ages, don't worry, I've not lapsed, I'm not going down that road again. Just very busy.
Hope you are all well and sober. I've noticed a lot of new members, Welcome to you all. Getting yourself sober is probably the best thing you will ever do in your life. If you've been here a while, you'll already know this, if you've just found us, you will find that sobriety is great but can take time and effort just like anything worthwhile.
Bye for now.
__________________
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music." -- Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989"
Hi Cabbage! Great to see your back and things are going well.
Hi Hanu! Can't say I have ever seen that headline in an Aussie paper... but the terms seem right...We also have working priviledges here. If the drunk is a worker and employed in a job that requires driving, we can apply for a restricted license which is granted between certain hours. So, as you can imagine...our country having some big stretches between areas and a pretty big transport industry, there are a lot restricted licenses granted.
Not sure how effective it is as a detterent...but it maintains the workforce, I guess.
It is common for multiple offences here... Most AA's, if they share on DD, usually say they had a few...not very often have I heard someone say they were caught only once...most folks seem to do this progressively too.
My Aunt was killed by a Hit and Run drink driver when I was about 15. She was flown down to the capital city and put on life support for two weeks before the family agreed to switch it off. The driver was never found. When drinking, I was a right arsehole when other folks tried driving...used to fling keys into rivers, and drainpipes etc...carry on about it, you know. I denied driving drunk for many years...raved on in some self righteous way announcing only idiots did it...just flat out denial. Once I got sober, I had to get honest, and remember... admit to the dumb things I'd done drunk and stop pretending I was sensible and sober when I wasn't.
I rolled my kombi after two nights on the grog and about two hours sleep...but I insisted I was sober, because I'd just woken up. Kinda hard to fathom today...but back then my warped head hid the truth so well. Took a few years to do the basic maths on that one...
Ah well, so glad its all behind me now.
Oh and Cabbagehead...that Indonesian law...whoever ever would have thought that playing with yourself could lead to a head job?
