I live in New York, where the average driving skill is one of the poorest i've ever had to be around in the western world.
I know that states are 'cracking down'. But till you see some of the PSAs that the UK and European countries have issued to 'crack down' on drink driving, you'll note that there's simply no question as to the laissez-faire approach to drink-driving in this country.
Whilst attorneys can still advertise quite so blatantly to help you 'get off' your DUI/DWI convictions, without any social consequence, and where major motion pictures make light of it (Bad Teacher recently features a scene where Cameron Diaz's character suggests it's ok to drive home as she's only "Buzzed"), it's CLEAR that the attitude here is inadequate.
To be clearer: there's now a healthy social stigma in the UK to go out and drink and drive; friends will forcibly remove you from your keys if you've been drinking - and it's ok. The punishment is also more significant, where drink driving is considered dangerous driving - not a misdemeanor or less.
And most importantly (which somewhat counters my arguments-- but only tangentially) much of the US land mass is a single, lonely road from a bar to your house. When you don't see another car for ages, it might seem ok to drive home when you've had a bit too much - what can go wrong, you might run off the road and take a nap?
But this doesn't apply in mountainous regions, or other places where you have to have your wits about you because the terrain isn't a wide, open plain.
and it certainly doesn't hold true when you're near/on Long Island (for example, as I see stories like this at least ONCE A MONTH), where you 'accidentally' get on the expressway the wrong way, and ram some innocent family's car.
[ and as an aside, to reinforce my signage point: off-ramps have "WRONG WAY" signed on the back of the exit-info signs. So that you know you're going the wrong way, if the angle of the ram and the difficulty you'll have experienced in entering it wasn't enough. Why there isn't the tire bursting heavy-duty spikes on off-ramps is totally beyond me. ]
I know that states are 'cracking down'. But till you see some of the PSAs that the UK and European countries have issued to 'crack down' on drink driving, you'll note that there's simply no question as to the laissez-faire approach to drink-driving in this country.
Whilst attorneys can still advertise quite so blatantly to help you 'get off' your DUI/DWI convictions, without any social consequence, and where major motion pictures make light of it (Bad Teacher recently features a scene where Cameron Diaz's character suggests it's ok to drive home as she's only "Buzzed"), it's CLEAR that the attitude here is inadequate.
To be clearer: there's now a healthy social stigma in the UK to go out and drink and drive; friends will forcibly remove you from your keys if you've been drinking - and it's ok. The punishment is also more significant, where drink driving is considered dangerous driving - not a misdemeanor or less.
And most importantly (which somewhat counters my arguments-- but only tangentially) much of the US land mass is a single, lonely road from a bar to your house. When you don't see another car for ages, it might seem ok to drive home when you've had a bit too much - what can go wrong, you might run off the road and take a nap?
But this doesn't apply in mountainous regions, or other places where you have to have your wits about you because the terrain isn't a wide, open plain.
and it certainly doesn't hold true when you're near/on Long Island (for example, as I see stories like this at least ONCE A MONTH), where you 'accidentally' get on the expressway the wrong way, and ram some innocent family's car.
[ and as an aside, to reinforce my signage point: off-ramps have "WRONG WAY" signed on the back of the exit-info signs. So that you know you're going the wrong way, if the angle of the ram and the difficulty you'll have experienced in entering it wasn't enough. Why there isn't the tire bursting heavy-duty spikes on off-ramps is totally beyond me. ]