Originally Posted by blkrx7

I thought drinking and driving was already illegal? If the government would like to change the legal limit, I'd be fine with that. I do wish they'd stop pussy footing around the issue by putting in wildly variable fines and penalties for being under the limit mind you. Set a fine/penalty for a crime, and leave it alone.

I find it ironic that the penalties for being suspected of racing are nearly ten fold that of drinking and driving. Especially considering

"About 1,350 people die each year in Canada in motor vehicle crashes involving a drinking driver, and many more are seriously injured or disabled. In Ontario in 1997, alcohol was involved in 39 per cent of motor vehicle fatalities, 45 per cent of marine vehicle fatalities and 64 per cent of snowmobile and all-terrain vehicle fatalities. Drinking and driving is the largest single criminal cause of death and injury in Canada. "

You'd think being presumed to be racing is 4/1350th the problem as drinking and driving, that either

1. The focus, funds and media attention would be a little sharper on the real issue
2. The problems would be treated separately instead of trying tag a politically popular issue alongside a drinking and driving bill

You can destroy your life financially and be put in prison for being suspected of racing, which is an extremely difficult thing to quantify, and to even defend if your innocent 'I think you were trying to outdistance another vehicle' versus drinking and driving, which can be easily quantified, independently checked by a team of unbiased observers, and has resulted in real world deaths approaching 338 times that of racing (we'll not discuss the fact that of the 35 so called street racing deaths, the majority were the drivers who suffered the ultimate penalty already for his/her own poor judgment, and many were already drunk!). Yet you can drink, drive, get caught, blow warn, be home that evening in time for supper with a light fine and no record.

I'd have to think that it's not every police officers worst nightmare if some kid wraps himself around a telephone pole off of frobisher at 2am because he's an idiot. It's the jackass middle aged businessman drunk in his 300c flying down the expressway at 9pm trying to beat the ride programs that's a loaded gun pointed at each person he passes.

IMO anyhow...

BTW a ride program stopped a talon the other night and cited him for a disconnected EGR. Focus on the problem guys, or your going to pull over the wrong guy (a lawyer) and lose the ride program. It's already an identified breach of our charter of rights and freedoms, poking around under the hood has nothing to do with drinking and driving.

Paul