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Drinking and driving is dangerous and stupid, but some people keep doing it and hurt themselves or others.
Ireland’s Road Safety Authority (RSA) is struggling to get the government to introduce a mandatory driving ban for those who get caught behind the wheel with alcohol in their system.
The three-month ban would come if the driver has a blood alcohol level of 51-80 mg per 100 milliliters. The offense is currently punished with penalty points and a fine, according to the Independent.
An independent politician named Danny Healy-Rae has accused the RSA of being on a “crusade to isolate people further in rural Ireland.” One of his arguments is amusing but plausible at best. He claims that eating a big meal and driving after doing that is as dangerous as drink-driving.
He explained that “eating too much,” followed by driving a vehicle can make the person unsafe on the road because he or she risks falling asleep after the big meal.
The politician claims that he does not eat when it is late in the evening and he has to drive home, because of "knowing what can happen to him if he does."
Ireland’s Road Safety Authority does not agree with drink-driving, and its representatives seem disappointed of the existence of the entire scandal. The CEO of the organization explained it would be dishonest to claim that there was not a proven link between alcohol consumption and fatal collisions on the country's roads. The connection can be proven by observing toxicology reports of drivers involved in fatal crashes, which show BAC levels between 51 to 80 mg/100 ml.
In other words, science and figures show that there is a link between accident rates and DUIs, even within the specified blood alcohol level that was mentioned above.
Moyagh Murdock, the CEO of the Road Safety Authority, said that several organizations and individuals, including the Vintners Federation, have attempted to “downplay the value of the lives lost” on the roads by “reducing them to an insignificant statistic.”
If you still feel that drinking and driving are not wrong, imagine that the person you treasure the most would be killed by a drunk driver. It does not chance statistics that much, but it can break up a family, and a couple of drinks, or even a single pint, are not worth this risk.
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