You have no idea how it affects you, you don't realise that your reaction times slows down do you?
Did i not tell you that i've personally timed myself in motion labs and shooting ranges after having a single bottle of beer and the reaction time isnt slowed by so much as even 0.1 seconds ??!?
I mean seriously - i drink on average twice a week with friends. Do you really think that A beer drunk at a normal pace would get me drunk or even feeling it ?!?
My essential point was not to support drunk driving but to merely state that drunk driving is not a function of simply getting busted by the cop for a particular Blood alcohol level. Rather, drunk driving is a personal decision based on knowing yourself and knowing where your limit is. So yes, i've driven quite often with my blood alcohol level higher than acceptable limits in Canada. But i've never driven drunk because i've never been less than full control (or as in control as one person in a road shared by many can be) of my senses.
And don't tell me i couldn't have known that : if you are driving and you are not in 100% control for whatever reason : exhaustion, tiredness, sleep depravation ,alcohol, pot, etc. you KNOW that you are not doing all fine !
Besides, i've never been in an accident (though i've driven off and on for a total of only two years in my life including current stint) of any sort and i can say that this whole reflex thing does not make any sense whatsoever.
You should not be driving based on your reflexes - wtf ! who the hell drives around regularly making reflex saves and reflex turns and whatnot ? Driving is about awareness. Ie, knowing what you are gonna do and what others are gonna do just before they do it. Not a reflex dodgeball game out there. As i said, if it down to reflex, it means one of two possible things : either you stuffed up or someone else stuffed up.
The thing is, with all this media talk about rules and regulations, people have lost the plot somewhat. They've missed out on the whole idea that drunk driving is about being drunk, not about having a particular blood alcohol level that's standard for everybody.
Hell, one girl i knew could do flamenco dancing after chugging a twenty-sixer of rum and not even faltering once ( she didnt get drunk. It'd be 'normal Jess---> Jess passes out after 2 litres of booze after 2 hrs. no inbetween drunken state'). Different people have different tolerance level and it affects people differently. Obviously the art of doing this is knowing just precisely how stuffed up you are and how much you have to compensate on the speed and distance factor. For eg,if i start driving after just 1 bottle of beer, i feel literally zero-nada, zilch. But i still drive on the highway at 90 instead of 110 and give myself an extra two second's breaking distance than normal.
And to be honest, there are tons and tons of people who are better than average drivers, never been in an accident or traffic misconduct and they'd be busted regularly for having higher than acceptable blood alcohol levels.
Just stop and think for a minute in practical real life terms instead of just being a MADD spokesperson. Sure, Plunkett broke a law, got dinged for it and thats that. But we don't even know how drunk he was - perhaps he was completely fine with tad high BAC. Ie, kinda harsh to see a scenario like this and go 'i've lost all total complete respect for this man. he is now scum'.
Drunk driving and drugs slow down your reaction time. There are countless statistics out there showing there is a direct correlation between being drunk and accidents. So many families and friends (including me) have lost people due to a drunk driving accident. Please stop justifying Plunkett's actions.
