Stealing our liberties one bit at a time

[Webb]

Australian man arrested for driving drunk on beer cooler

A 22-year-old man in Australia has been arrested for drunk driving after he was caught riding a motorised drink cooler in the middle of a suburban street.

Police spotted the man riding a motorised cooler – known in Australia as an esky – on a road in Perth about 8pm on Friday night. He was found to be under the influence of alcohol.

Police said the vehicle was potentially dangerous and that the cooler contained alcohol.

"This motor vehicle would only be able to travel at very low speeds, the lighting devices on said vehicle would be negligible and make it very difficult for other motorists to see," police said in a statement ...

[Fozzer]

Australian man arrested for driving drunk on beer cooler

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/arc ... 35488b.jpg

A 22-year-old man in Australia has been arrested for drunk driving after he was caught riding a motorised drink cooler in the middle of a suburban street.

Police spotted the man riding a motorised cooler – known in Australia as an esky – on a road in Perth about 8pm on Friday night. He was found to be under the influence of alcohol.

Police said the vehicle was potentially dangerous and that the cooler contained alcohol.

"This motor vehicle would only be able to travel at very low speeds, the lighting devices on said vehicle would be negligible and make it very difficult for other motorists to see," police said in a statement ...

.... ....!

If things go according to our Government's proposed plan, we could be fined £10,000 for driving a drinks cooler on the highway whilst being a little bit tipsy...>>> http://web.orange.co.uk/article/news/sp ... ned_10_000

...four times the previous fines.

Apparently, its not cool to operate a cooler on the Queen's highway... ....!

Paul.

[expat]

That is nothing, in the UK papers you get to read about people being drunk in charge of...............Just enter an object that has wheels...............It helps with the crime clear up figures....

However, a mate of mine is a copper in Perth, I will have to ask him about this..

Matt

[Hawkeye07]

"Stealing our liberties one bit at a time" ? Which "liberty" are we referring to here? The liberty to be a drunken hazzard to vehicular traffic? The "liberty" to operate an obviously unroadworthy motorized vehicle again being a hazzard to vehicular traffic? The liberty to be a risk to life and limb (most notably his own dumb arse) in which case the person who would have hit him would probably be tramatized and perhaps emotionally scarred for life? So which one of these "Liberties" is being stolen?

Hawkeye

[Webb]

The pursuit of happiness.

[Steve M]

"Suburban street" to one person could be a busy road and to another could be a dead end road with one house on it. Information provided doesn't infer that this guy was deadpan pissed up. So it's a stretch to say that he was endangering lives. I've been on some roads in both southwest USA and northern Ontario that you could literally pitch a tent on overnite. The cop should have just taken this guy home with a warning.

[Fozzer]

"Suburban street" to one person could be a busy road and to another could be a dead end road with one house on it. Information provided doesn't infer that this guy was deadpan pissed up. So it's a stretch to say that he was endangering lives. I've been on some roads in both southwest USA and northern Ontario that you could literally pitch a tent on overnite. The cop should have just taken this guy home with a warning.

Exactly my feelings, Steve!..... ...!

Common sense!

Far too many trigger-happy Law Makers/Enforcers around.

Paul.

[Hawkeye07]

"Suburban street" to one person could be a busy road and to another could be a dead end road with one house on it. Information provided doesn't infer that this guy was deadpan pissed up. So it's a stretch to say that he was endangering lives. I've been on some roads in both southwest USA and northern Ontario that you could literally pitch a tent on overnite. The cop should have just taken this guy home with a warning.

The one I was primarily thinking of when I said "endangering life and limb" was the inebriated 22 year old esky driver himself. Kind of reminds me of my neighbor in Memphis, TN who was inebriated while cutting his lawn on his John Deere riding lawnmower. He lost control, went down over the curb and swerved out into the roadway and was hit by a motorcyclist. He lost his left leg just above the knee, the motorcyclist wasn't as lucky.



Does anyone know if they have esky races down under?

[Hawkeye07]

As a side note a short story...Back in 1981 the E-2C squadron I was in was sent to Iceland for a few months. While in Keflavik I met a nice young lady who helped pass the time. One night we were sitting in her car in the parking lot of my barracks talking ( we really were just talking) when an Icelandic Police Officer pulled up next to us. Being it was in the wee hours of the morning he asked for ID's which we presented to him. He then told my companion to breath in his face. She did as directed and then he came to my side of the car and told me to do the same. I complied and then he handed our ID cards back to us and said "Have a good evening." and departed. I asked the young lady what that was all about and she replied "That was an Icelandic Breathalyser Test. If he had smelled alcohol on your breath you'd be spending the next 24 hours in jail."

[Webb]

Why would they care what the passenger's BAL is?