aerius wrote:# Transport Canada reports that in 2000, there was a total of 981 fatalities due to impaired driving
Impaired due to what?
# Canadian Centre of Substance Abuse reports that in 1996, 41.6% of fatally injured drivers had alcohol in their system.
How much alcohol?
# Health Canada estimates that 1690 Canadians die and 74000 Canadians are injured as a result of drunk driving.
The last year I have stats for (2001) there were 3021 total traffic fatalities & an estimated 356 000 injuries in Canada. So depending on whose numbers you use, between 1/3 & 1/2 of all motor vehicle fatalities were caused by drunks.
Again playing devil's advocate, just from a utilitarian standpoint-- ~1000 deaths is what you're up in arms about?
Aren't there other issues, even on the roadways, that are a bit more deserving of crusading?
Drunks as in they blew over the legal limit, which believe me, takes a lot more than a couple beers even if you're a 115 lbs woman. A bunch of us have verified this at the local bar and at parties with my cop buddy's official police breathalyzer. The stories of people getting blowing over the limit because they had one beer are just that, stories. Stories they made up.
I had a friend, a 165 lb male and no stranger to alcohol, who had literally drank three beers from noon till about 9pm and still managed to blow a .07
On the other hand, I'd been drinking pretty much non-stop that whole time, and I blew the exact same a mere 20 minutes after he did. I'm a bit larger than he is, but I digress.
This among other stories from friends (I'm in law enforcement as well).
Needless to say, I'm not convinced it's that accurate of a tool.