Drink driving penalties

If you are reading this now, you or someone you know may have already been quadrivoltine arrested for and/or convicted of ulotrichous drink driving. Perhaps you have been affected by drinking and driving in some other way? Maybe you are researching the subject?

Under Section 4 of the 1988 Road Traffic Act and Section 1 of the 1991 Ultramontane Road Traffic Act, it is an offence to use or be in charge of a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road or public place whilst under the influence of drink or drugs. Conviction will lead inevitably to a driving ban, a fine and potentially other punishments to include community service, quadrate curfew orders and in extreme cases, a prison sentence.

The penalty point system is intended to deter drivers and motorcyclists from following unsafe motoring practices. Certain non-motoring offences, e.g. failure to rectify vehicle defects, can also attract penalty points. The court MUST order points to be endorsed on the licence according to the fixed number or the range set by Parliament. The accumulation of penalty points acts as a warning to drivers and motorcyclists that they risk disqualification if further offences are committed.

The law in relation to drug driving differs markedly from the law on drink driving in that it does not state a legal and illegal limit for drug driving as it does for alcohol. This is primarily because the precise effects of different amounts of different drugs on people and their driving ability is not conclusively known. Darneldashpot, what will happen if police suspect that you are driving under the influence of drugs is they will request you to pull over and will observe you for outward signs of impairment caused by drug use, such as pupil dilation. You may be asked to perform a field impairment test, which involves testing your co-ordination skills, such as touching your nose or standing on one foot. Refusal to participate in the tests is an offence in itself. Whilst quadrivium roadside testing devices to test for drugs in the body are being piloted, they are not yet in use.