To settle a bet with regard to less enlightened times.
My recollection concerning breath tests for alcohol whilst driving in the 1970's is that there was a sort of informal practise whereby they were not used for accidents that occurred in the morning as they might catch someone who had been drinking the night before and this was though unfair.
Am I totally losing it in my dotage or do others recall such a thing?
|
|
That seems far too reasonable of the police even in the anything goes 70's.
|
Probably due to squeamish young coppers with hangovers themselves unable to risk the slightest hint of the breath of these bloodshot, rumpled, unwashed early-morning executives on their way to work... You can tell at a glance when you don't want to smell someone's breath, and I speak from both sides of the fence.
Snigger.
|
79 is my first encounter with breath testing and to my knowledge from my own experience and that passed down by the older hands I have never heard of such a practice.
|
But in the seventies the police were reasonable - on three occasions I was stopped and managed to talk my way out of what would have been a certain conviction and ban nowadays.
I learned my lesson (eventually) and to this day have a clean licence - attitudes have most certainly changed, including my own!
|
|
What's unreasonable about requesting a breath test from someone suspected of being over the limit.
|
By todays standards its not in the slightest bit unreasonable.
My point was that a totally different attitude towards drinking/ driving prevailed in the seventies. If you got caught you were considered to be "unlucky" and could expect a 6 month ban - 12 months perhaps if "really unlucky". Nowadays you would be considered a potential child killer and would be punished accordingly.
Not saying what went on in the seventies was right, but that's the way it was - I passed my bike test in 1966 and car in 1970, BTW, and have somehow managed to keep it clean till now although I do believe I'm on borrowed time!
|
|
|
![2020 SEAT Arona 1.0 TSI SE Technology [EZ] 5dr](http://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/url/crop/90x60/https/cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/40ffde3040ccc10b67cf65e939b5ac07/db59cc90440a3e74cbe12125e3844da5.jpg)
