Peter Wiley wrote:
The only vehicle accidents I've ever had in over 30 years were when
dead sober and not paying sufficient attention to what I was doing. And
I can count them on the thumbs of both hands.


When young I had a number of mishaps in cars, due to
excesssive confidence & lack of respect for the
consequences... like most young people....

So - I agree with you, Doug. The crime isn't driving with a BA over a
certain level, it's doing that and causing an accident. I can't figure,
given human stupidity, that laws will ever make a difference, tho, as
the people most dangerous are those sure they'll never get caught.


And that's the problem... the social engineers need to
figure out how to instill the belief that they will be
caught. That is the single best deterrent to misbehavior,
much more effective than severe & harsh punishment *if* you
get caught.


Here in Australia (NSW) they took licences off people and cancelled
their vehicle registrations for various offences. All that happened was
an increase in unlicensed & uninsured drivers/vehicles. Predictable.
They need to confiscate the vehicles, then people may pay attention. Or
at least if they didn't, they'd have to find a new vehicle to drive.


We do that here too, with unintended consequences. The
confiscated cars were given to the schools to sell off, a
nice idea in theory. However the cars cost more to store
than they fetch on the market, and the schools are also
embroiled in wrongful deprivement of property suits. A mess.

DSK