Australian drink-driver who killed cyclist texted sister to find 'a very good lawyer' instead of calling emergency services

alansmurphy wrote:

Interesting that drug driving is perceived so much worse than drunk given those sentences!

 

Beast, I get the statistical point you're trying to make but surely lower tolerances are better; the lack of policing, enforcement, appropriate sentencing are things that will fluctuate and impact but surely making drivers think beofre the second drink (or even the end of the first) is a good thing...

It's the general attitude that it's seen not just as anti social but totally unacceptable that has by far the major affect, 'crackdowns' don't do squat because that's all they are, short periods of increased policing.

Lowering the limit has clearly not made the type of people who go over the limit think about having a second or third has it, otherwise it would have shown up in the stats. There was already a downward trend in Scotland's KSIs at the time before the BAC limit was lowered so the initial reports and jubilation were actually just BS.

France lowered its BAC back in the mid 90s and the deaths from DD went up 10% the following year, most US states found no deviation after lowering their BAC level. Most other countries that lowered their BAC rate the researchers NEVER mention underlying trends in DD before the lchange in egislation is brought in, not a single one of them. Sweden for example there's a mention in the significant change of driver age that accounts for at least a third of the lowering of incidents due to the way the next gen thought about drnking and driving as a whole, if you look at the avergae BAC levels of those caught in Sweden frankly it's hard to see how even a small amount of extra policing might have had an effect, proper pissheads! 

Also not all the fewer KSIs could be attributed solely to fewer DD incidents though the language is always used to make out it is, just like helmets in cycling when there's a positive outcome after increased wearing rates.

it's bent/flawed data manipulation that ignores that you need to be doing other stuff instead that has by far a greater affect on the problem, but stating that doing x is successful is a good win for politicians even if the evidence doesn't back it up when actually taking everything into account.

This was published in the Lancet this year by Glasgow Uni

"We assessed the weekly rate of RTAs and alcohol consumption between Jan 1, 2013, and Dec 31, 2016, before and after the BAC limit came into effect on Dec 5, 2014. After the reduction in BAC limits for drivers in Scotland, we found no significant change in weekly RTA rates after adjustment for seasonality and underlying temporal trend (rate ratio 1·01, 95% CI 0·94–1·08; p=0.77) or after adjustment for seasonality, the underlying temporal trend, and the driver characteristics of age, sex, and socioeconomic deprivation (1·00, 0·96–1·06; p=0·73). Relative to RTAs in England and Wales, where the reduction in BAC limit for drivers did not occur, we found a 7% increase in weekly RTA rates in Scotland after this reduction in BAC limit for drivers (1·07, 1·02–1·13; p=0·007 in the fully-adjusted model). Similar findings were observed for serious or fatal RTAs and single-vehicle night-time RTAs. The change in legislation in Scotland was associated with no change in alcohol consumption, measured by per-capita off-trade sales"

AMcCulloch wrote:

I am from the state that this vehicle manslaughter occurred. It is one of three cases of a person killed while cycling by a person driving a car. They are; a Dutch woman kill by a drug drive, a pro ride kill by a texting drive and this one mentions above. Conviction 20yrs, 3yrs, 200hrs community service. Common in all three cases is that each person is disqualified from driving for a certain period of time but at the end of this period can drive again it a WTF moment. They have all ready demonstrated the inability to operate a motor vehicle they should be band for life. IMO. It's what I fine that sucks about our legal system.

Live in Melbourne suspect that in this case the jail sentence reflected the crime of "failing to render assistance" and the drink driving which quite rightly get public concern...routine running down a cyclist is just bad luck/could happen to anyone/shouldn't be on the highway with a bit of plea bargaining and a decent lawyer minimal sentence seems routine...I'd add this recent sentencing from a death in 2017...200hrs community service and after 18months will be able to drive there to do it. Police officer killed in circumstances which if you do ride sound highly suspect

https://www.katherinetimes.com.au/story/6489833/no-jail-for-vic-driver-o...

(katherine times! selected as not pay walled and all news sources seem to carry same "cable" report)

ktache wrote:

Interesting to think that this awful example of a human being would not have been legally drunk in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  He had a blood alcohol level of 0.067%.  In England it is 0.08%.  Drunk in Scotland though, same as Australia at 0.05%.

What are the differentials in KSIs between the levels, the most recent study (2018) by University of East Anglia says that lowering the alcohol limit in itself doesn't really have an effect on incidents/crash numbers.

Just like with helmets, all the reductions in crashes are put on one thing only, yet when it goes up agains subsequently well there's another reason to blame, one or even two years data simply isn't enough when you're using such a broad brush, even down to the amount of policing at certain times of years all have a huge affect on the data and how it can be compared, which is what UEA suggest may be a factor as to why no improvements but doesn't explain why incidents/crashes have not gone down despite the lowered limit.

From the report we have no idea re the timescale from the incident to the test so the actual reading could be massively out from when the incident took place, it wouldn't surprise me if this tool was at least three times over the limit, 'had a few' isn't 2 beers is it which could lead to that BAC reading.

Either way the killer has got off with a bloody light sentence ... again!