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Behind the Wheel - Teen Drinking & Driving

43K views 18 replies 15 participants last post by  steve604 
#1 ·
Teen Drinking and Driving

I spoke to a woman this week who was upset at the way the police had handled the clearing of an out of control party at a residence. The officer had advised all the teens that they must leave immediately and would not listen to reasons for doing anything other than that. She was upset because this forced the teens to drive away from the party while impaired.

I will not discuss his behaviour, but that of those who placed him in this position.

The last time I checked, the legal drinking age in British Columbia was 19. Had the law been followed, the majority of the teens at the party would not have been in this situation to start with.

The Graduated Licensing Program requires that its participants have no alcohol in their blood at the time of driving. Why would a teen in the GLP choose to go to a party and consume alcohol knowing that they were going to drive away from it at some time during the evening?

The officer did not force the teens to get into their cars and drive. The majority of them had two good legs, and assuming that they were parked legally, could easily have walked home and returned to pick up their vehicles the next day. They could also have used their cell phones to call for rides.

Full blame must not be placed on the teens. After all, they recieved permission to use the vehicles involved from their parents. I dare say that there is a duty of care placed on the parents whenever they hand over the car keys or sponsor the ownership of a vehicle.

Common sense and courtesy toward the neighbours by the party goers would also have meant that the police would not have known about the gathering in the first place.
 
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#2 ·
I have to put in my two bits on this one as I agry with the woman being upset ! Ive been in a very similiar experiance but unfortunatley it ended up in 2 deaths !


This is going back many years , I was playing Duke Nukem over the internet with a freind (tells you how long ago ) and had to stop playing as I was seeing a lot of comotion out on the street in front of my house ! I was living on a two acre lot back then . I stopped playing the game and went to see what was happening !


There were at least 13 different police vehichles out breaking up what had started as a small party that got crashed ! The parents were out of town and their very responsible 16 year old was having a few freinds over when they were swarmed by a group that had been chased out of downtown langley a few minutes earlier . Word got out that my Neighbors daughtor was the place to head to so the kids did !


After a few attempts to control the party that just went from 6-8 freinds to a couple hundred kids didnt work they called in the "profesionals" to help clear the house .


I walked out to see car after car leaving the 10 acre property loaded with young party goers , and not one of the police letting the cars leave the property actually looking to see if the person driving was ok to drive -they just shuttled them out !


It was the next day when I heard the horrile news ! The kid that left that house all ended up going across municipal boundries and carried on partying at whats known as Stokes Pit . Where one of the kids ended up loosing control of his car and running into the crowd Killing at least one person -maybe two -


When I heard that news all I could think of was why were they just pushing the kids out and allowing them to drive right past without at least checking to see if they had been drnking?

I spent a good part of the next morning cleaning up all the empty beer bottles etc that had been tossed into my horse field . Why did they not check?



Bruce
 
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#3 ·
Jeeper, I agree with you about the cops letting the kids drive without ensuring they were capable of driving especially since there is zero tolerance when they are just starting to drive, it is easy to hand out suspension after suspension. However, if the incident you are talking about is the one I'm thinking of...didn't the driver get made at one or more in the group for what ever reason and then just mow them down?
 
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#12 ·
Im pretty sure we are talking about the same incedent ,, but I think it was more the kid got scared and tried to drive away mowing down the group and killing one or two ,But that part of this is only second hand knowladge to me -but that group of kids leaving the party sure amazed me that they were driving away !Im sure there werent that many "designated drivers" for all those cars leaving !



And YUP Ive been just as guilty over the years . Not an excuse , but just so surprised to see a place where there was more then enough police presence to handle the crowd and for them not to check the drivers .


Bruce
 
#4 ·
with due respect, i also disagree.
the officer's 'position' was already set when he arrived. by seing how irresponsible these teens already were and that they had already made some poor judgement descisions already, the officer should have gone one step further and figured out that they might not make the right choice in how they were to leave the party... confiscating keys, making sure they walked home or forcing them to call parents rather than requiring them to just vacate the premise would have been much better as the officer is now in a position of authority and responsibility being the only one there who was not drunk...

it might have been a 'damned if you do, damned if you dont' situation for the officer...

thanks
Phil :read
 
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#5 ·
In retrospect and providing there were the police resources, they all should have been loaded into a Paddy Wagon and taken to the police station. One by one they could call their parents and have them come down to the police station to collect their kids. It would knock some common sense into the kids and parents who have a bit of it left and for those that don't, it would at least make sure they are off the road for that evening.
 
#6 ·
Full blame must not be placed on the teens. After all, they recieved permission to use the vehicles involved from their parents. I dare say that there is a duty of care placed on the parents whenever they hand over the car keys or sponsor the ownership of a vehicle.
If the cop told them to jump off a bridge, would the kids have done it?

Do you think that Billy and Bobby told their parents that they were going out drinking? Not likely. As far as the parents knew Billy and Bobby were at Sally's place playing cards and doing their homework.

What happened to the drive of a vehicle taking full responsibility?

Oh, and find me a 16 year old that doesn't know that drinking and driving is wrong. They know.



 
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#7 ·
Damn right drinking and driving is wrong. Have i done it? Yup, just once. Should i have done it? NO. Was i going far? No, is that an excuse, deffinately not. I was driving two blocks home from a company party. Was i lazy? Absolutely. I've gone through quite a few road blocks now not displaying my N , did they check my license? maybe... did they check to see if i have my N, obviously not, though that should tell me they didnt check my license either. Going through those road blocks i tend to have a pint of beer in my blood system to. I think the point im trying to make here is, police aren't doing their job like they should, i also understand they can't catch everyone but why not check us 19-20yr olds since most of us are young, dumb and full of stuff.. and they obviously catch the completely intoxicated ones too:cwm36: . This being said, i do like my odds now of not being caught.
 
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#8 ·
in all honesty theres a million reasons why we shouldn't drink and drive and there all right but i feel the reason why the police told everyone to just leave and diden't bother to check everyone is simple.. the police are scared much like parents are scared to talk to their own kids. people have tempers and reactions and 3 cops and 75 teens you never know.
 
#9 ·
I'm sure most of us are guilty of drinking and driving at some point in our lives. I used to do it all the time; never was blotto'd, but enough to fail a breathalizer. Heck, one time, we drank after work, then went to Fore Shore Park, tossed the football around and drank lots more. I then drove home, stopped McD's on McBride for a yummy cheeseburger meal for dinner, then drove up and over 8th. To my surprise there was a road block at the crest of the hill. I nearly crapped myself. Windows down, stuff some fries and iced tea in the mouth, followed by a "no officer, nothing to drink here, just heading home from work". To this day I thank my lucky stars that I didn't get busted.

The other thing to is that my parents and that generation did a lot more of this than I ever did, and the teens of today should be doing NONE of it. That just shows the change in the times and how drinking and driving has changed from tollerable, to unacceptable.



 
#10 ·
Roadblocks DO NOT work effectivly. I've been through many (at least 20+) with people driving with varying amounts of booze in their system and have never seen one of them get busted for it. The policve need to step it up a bit more.
 
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#11 ·
Road block what are those??? Been years since I have been through one and I drive 100,000km a year.

When I went to school in PG everyone drove home from the bar since there was never any road blocks and it was hard to get a cab.....

Rather see road blocks then radar, maybe drinking and driving does not bring in the same amount of money (+ takes time to arrest people, then hand out revenue creating tickets and letting the driver drive off to speed again)
 
#13 ·
jeeper, I guess when you get right down to it, it doesn't matter what the actual circumstance was it was a very sad occassion for the friends and family.

I've given this some thought today and realized that I've been to my share of howlers where anywhere from 4-8 cop cars showed up (and a couple of times the paddy wagon) after several earlier requests to keep quiet. I think, based on my experiences, if the cops tried to bust everyone for impared, they would have a shower of beer bottles thrown at them, I've seen that a few times. With that sort of agression thrown at them form a large group, I think the idea to break them up into smaller groups so they can be better handled is safer for everyone. I've only seen arrests at 2 of the parties I've been to, the rest were just broken up.
 
#15 ·
Don't we all think it's time the "letter of the law" was address by the constabulary with an eye for the community as whole?

If the officer would have acted with this:

1. the alcohol was confiscated
2. the officer let the control person in the house that a 2nd visit would lead to an evacuation order
If the law was not complied to.
3. notify them house that a follow up would be done to ensure compliance.

The time required to do the right thing , vs the what happened would have been a win win.
 
#17 · (Edited)
The terrorists over here in Abbotsford stold my license a couple months ago. I was walking near my buddy's place and took out my phone to take some pictures of cops questioning someone. The cops watched my walking into my buddy's condo, after telling me i should'nt be doing that in a threating way. They waited 4 hours until i left the condo to go sleep in my truck as the couches were all full up. After 30 minutes of sitting in my truck sleeping, one of the scum bags walks up to my truck and shines a light on it wearing no uniform, It would of been easy to mistake him as someone looking for trouble as it was 4 in the mourning and in a ruff part of town. So they cuff me, rip the whole truck apart, don't find anything, have the truck towed and i lose my license and job. Makes it tempting to throw a rock through the windshield of every empty cop car i see... Be careful out there.
 
#18 · (Edited)
Teen Drinking and Driving

I spoke to a woman this week who was upset at the way the police had handled the clearing of an out of control party at a residence. The officer had advised all the teens that they must leave immediately and would not listen to reasons for doing anything other than that. She was upset because this forced the teens to drive away from the party while impaired.

I will not discuss his behaviour, but that of those who placed him in this position.

The last time I checked, the legal drinking age in British Columbia was 19. Had the law been followed, the majority of the teens at the party would not have been in this situation to start with.

The Graduated Licensing Program requires that its participants have no alcohol in their blood at the time of driving. Why would a teen in the GLP choose to go to a party and consume alcohol knowing that they were going to drive away from it at some time during the evening? And if your the one who messaged me, I was fully within my rights to take a picture, what do you got to hide?

The officer did not force the teens to get into their cars and drive. The majority of them had two good legs, and assuming that they were parked legally, could easily have walked home and returned to pick up their vehicles the next day. They could also have used their cell phones to call for rides.

Full blame must not be placed on the teens. After all, they recieved permission to use the vehicles involved from their parents. I dare say that there is a duty of care placed on the parents whenever they hand over the car keys or sponsor the ownership of a vehicle.

Common sense and courtesy toward the neighbours by the party goers would also have meant that the police would not have known about the gathering in the first place.
No shit people are concerned, even after being set up by your apd buddies, I had to pay $100 dollars for the right to defend myself, which they refused to see the reason in, you guys are straight up criminals. If your the one that messaged me, I was fully within my rights to take a pic, what do you have to hide?

End the police state! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7FJ4AvdTXw
 
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