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Fascists against drunk driving
Posted: September 14th, 2006 | Author: amake | Filed under: Diatribes, Japan, Politics | 8 Comments »First of all I’d like to state that I am not in favor of drunk driving.
However, I read something in the paper today that made me mad: Japanese auto makers, particularly Nissan, are apparently moving to introduce devices that prevent a car from starting up if the driver has consumed alcohol. Suggested devices to be made requirements for starting the car:
- A brethalyzer tube on the dashboard into which you must blow, or
- inputting a long, complicated PIN that would be too difficult to enter while drunk.
This is just stupid. I’m not going to take a goddamn breathalyzer every time I want to start my car, and I’m not memorizing some obnoxious password.
The impetus for these draconian measures is the “skyrocketing” DUI-related death rate in Japan. The actual numbers listed in the article? About 1200 cases in 2002 or 2003, and a full 700-some cases in 2005. Let’s compare with the US: According to MADD, there were 17,448 people killed in alcohol related crashes in 2001. Unless 14.5 people were killed in every single incident in Japan, I don’t think they’re even freaking close. Yes, Japan has half the population of the US; yes, we’re not comparing apples to apples here (number of drunken driving incidents that led to death vs. number of drunk driving deaths), but first of all, this is clearly not a pressing social problem. And drunk driving deaths are not skyrocketing if, as the article stated, there was a 38% drop over the last 3 years.
Won’t somebody please think of the children!?! Let’s give up our personal freedoms just to appease a bunch of knee-jerking soccer moms and some auto manufacturers that want to sell us yet another must-have feature next to the LCD TV, DVD player, CD player, GPS navigation system, collision detection, backup camera, automated-parallel-parking, satellite-hookup black box / Big Brother surveilance system, and so on.
There is already a zero tolerance policy for drunk driving here. Everyone knows that. This is already overkill (how about something a little more reasonable like in the US?) Is inconveniencing every single non-drunk driving person in the country worth it? Is it going to stop the misanthropes who knowingly get behind the wheel while tipsy? How about the research that says driving while talking on a cell phone is worse than driving drunk?” Are we going to have anti-cellphone devices installed in cars too? Speaking of which, that’s one of my pet peeves. Shut the fuck up and drive, asshole. If you’re so important you have to use the cell and drive at the same time, you can afford a goddamn chauffeur.
That is nothing.
Try driving next to a drunk man, talking on a cellphone
ON A MOTORBIKE.
I’ve seen weaving motorbikes on the road, and been able to smell the alcohol on them. Talk about dangerous.
the problem i have with driving drunk is that i usually spill my drink a little bit on my pants, does Nissan have a plan to fix that?
I would love for any driver but me to drive a car like that…better go sell our Nissan stocks…
After watching the news two days ago and listening to the old man, through tears, describe how the van full of drunken idiots knocked his wife off a bridge, killing her, I say I’m all for any-means-necessary methods of getting drunks off the road.
But I’m against the way the news goes after people for interviews right after personal tragedies.
And, obviously, I’m pro-comma and support run-on sentences and hyphens whole-heartedly.
I totally understand and but what’s really retarded is that according to newspapers in Japan, the number of drivers refusing to take alcohol breath tests are increasing due to a loophole in the law.
The Road Traffic Law was amended in 2002 to stiffen the penalties for drunken driving. However, under the revisions , those who are found to be driving while being heavily drunk face up to three years in prison or a fine of 500,000 yen and those accused of driving under the influence of alcohol can be punished with up to one-year imprisonment or a fine of not more than 300,000 yen.
However, a provision that stipulate drivers who refuse to undergo breath tests will be punished with not more than a fine of 50,000 yen remained unchanged.
So putting a breath test or a PIN on a car won’t solve the problem. Not having stupid laws like this will help though.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not fine with 700 people having needlessly died last year; and if what it takes is a minor inconvenience when starting your car….well then.
If you are AGAINST it, then YOU are part of the problem.
Meaning that YOU are one of those idiots that sometimes drives drunk.
You talk about the relatively low instance in statistics here, but imagine if it were your child or relative that was killed by a drunk driver.
You mention “bunch of knee-jerking soccer moms”… It’s not just this group. People pushing for this are those who have lost relatives to people like yourself that think they have 100% ability in their driving skills whilst drunk.
To me, you are the problem.
JP > Frankly, that’s bullshit. Simply disagreeing with anti-x whatever doesn’t make one pro-x. I don’t drive drunk, but I’m against the overboard “order at any cost” tactics I described in my post.
People die of choking all the time. Should everyone be forced to be certified in the Heimlich maneuver before being allowed to eat?
The “imagine it was your child” argument is also bullshit. It’s an appeal to irrational emotions that completely ignores the wider effects these restrictions would have on society as a whole.
If anything, it’s you “with us or against us” people who are the problem. Do you really have your head so far up your ass that you can’t accept that someone might have a differing opinion?