Fred can you be drunk in charge of an internet connection?
Chat Forum
just got pulled by the rozzers!
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Posted 9 months ago #
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I'd be doing Life by now if that were the case Al!
Posted 9 months ago # -
My point exactly.
Any of you worthy people care to educate us provincial types then?
Docu clearly biased.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Personally I have no moral issues with riding after a few pints. Done it many a time will continue to do so.
Indeed - a helmet will protect you from any damage you might do to yourself.Posted 9 months ago # -
I'll bet after six pints many experienced cyclists can ride with more proficiency, and be of less risk to themselves and others, than many of the cyclists I see commuting to work every day.
Posted 9 months ago # -
One of the pubs I go to on an evening or Sunday afternoon ride is in the bottom of a valley. Every way out is up, most very steep. Believe me, by the time you get to the flat-ish bits at the top, being pissed is no longer an issue.
Oh, and Cynic, your Epic Fail pic up there^^ is an epic fail in itself; the shadowy creature surfing the wave is a bottle nosed dolphin, not a shark, it has horizontal tail flukes and the dorsal fin's too rounded.
Just thought I'd throw in a little pedantry.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Why do we have specific legislation regards limiting blood alcohol level prior or during the operation of motor vehicles? Something to do with the real actual carnage wrought on the roads by pissed up drivers. Lives lost, innocent parties involved, property damaged.
Damage caused by pissed up cyclists is simply infinitesimal and on the rare occasions it does happen, there is nothing to prevent the guilty party being held to account using existing powers.
In fact the risk is tacitly understood to be so small, even by the haterz, such that scenarios in which a drunk cyclist causes a motorist to swerve have to be dreamt up. A driver presumably not paying attention, speeding or giving insufficient room.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Its one reason I switched from motorbike tours to cycle ones - the ability to have a beer or two with your lunch. I'll be sensible - I won't get steaming and go and play with traffic but I'll ride home from the pub along a canal towpath with a few beers inside of me.
Posted 9 months ago # -
I'll ride home from the pub along a canal towpath with a few beers inside of me.
I know two people who've ended up in the canal after that!
However, there is no such offence as being drunk in charge of a unicycle, you can be as pi$$ed as you like and have a unicycle and they can't touch you! (unless you are also drunk and disorderly, and most uncyclists seem fairly disorderly at the best of times...)A long time ago, I experimentally verified the fact that I can ride a unicycle when I am too drunk to walk. Off road in the Wyre Forest. At night. Having said that I did wake up with quite a few bramble scratches, so I guess I didn't stay on for the whole ride, but I remember riding some drops that there is no way I'd have done sober.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Thank you for the long discussion on the merits of cycling whilst intoxicated
As the OP, you can guess that I do! At 2am on quiet lanes near me, I feel safer than riding off road. That said I do seem to ride quite well when pissed!
The post was more about saying thank you to the local plod, who stopped a cyclist at 2am and asked a few questions about the bike, not about my drunken-ness, and realised I was the owner of said cycle, and let me on my way!
I am not joining the 'don't ride when pissed' conversation, as in reality, I hardly ever ride without a drink or two. I do respect those who choose a different evenings entertainment.
See lots of you at the BBB this weekend!
(not racing - helping out!)Robin
Posted 9 months ago # -
A long time ago, I experimentally verified the fact that I can ride a unicycle when I am too drunk to walk.
I learned to unicycle predominantly under the influence of Carlsberg Special Brew..
I would not have had the patience otherwise..
Posted 9 months ago # -
I broke my unicycle doing jumps in the hallway when drunk
Posted 9 months ago # -
Think yourselves lucky. Over this side of Europe you are under the same laws for riding a bike as driving a car when alcohol is concerned. So you can get points on your license for jumping traffic lights and lose your license for being over the legal limit.
Posted 9 months ago # -
What if you don't own a driving licence though?
Posted 9 months ago # -
Then they stamp on your face wiz zee jackboots.
Posted 9 months ago # -
We've just had this discussion at work. A colleague thinks you can lose your driving licence in the UK if you are found drunk in charge of a bicycle.
Any reputable sources (dvla, ctc etc) state this is not the case?
Posted 9 months ago # -
A colleague thinks you can lose your driving licence in the UK if you are found drunk in charge of a bicycle.
Not true.
As above; what if you don't have a driving licence? Would mean people like me could drink-cycle with impunity.
You don't require a licence to ride a pedal cycle. You don't have to give a sample of breath, blood or urine if you are stopped whilst on a pedal cycle. In fact the police have no powers to ask you to do so. Therefore, it's entirely up to the judgment of the coppers as to how fit/unfit you are to ride your bike. As they cannot obtain proof that you have been drinking, which they'd need in order to charge you for being over the limit, then all they can do you for is drunk in charge, or drunken disorderly something like that, for which all they need is for you to fail a sobriety test ie walk in straight line etc.
I think the actual charge is 'in charge of a pedal cycle whilst unfit through drink or drugs' type thing. similar to being in charge of a horse etc.
Along those lines anyway.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Posted 9 months ago # -
'Unfit' is the key word. Evidence from sources such as CCTV, eye-witnesses, officer observations & Police Doctor examination are the norm to prove that the rider is so bladdered as to be unfit to ride.
A kebab in a pannier is overwhelming evidence of being pished and will more than likely get you convicted.
Posted 9 months ago # -
And thinking about it, in this country at least, you'd need to have tested positive for drink/drugs before your driving licence could be revoked, which if you were done on a bike but never provided a sample, you coon't be.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Dun't matter how pished / unfit you are on a pedal cycle, your DVLA driver record remains unaffected.
Posted 9 months ago # -
just got pulled by the rozzers!
I got pulled by a rozzer once. Turned out she'd joined the Police a few months previously.
Quite handy with the cuffs that one...
Posted 9 months ago # -
He's just quoted this
Disqualification
That doesn’t mean that your driving licence is completely safe. A reader, John CB, has pointed out that the courts have a general power to disqualify you from driving a car for any offence, including offences committed on a bicycle. (PCCSA s. 146(1))
It’s up to the court whether to disqualify you, and it’s not necessary for the offence to be “connected with the use of a motor car”. The courts do need a “sufficient reason” for the disqualification, but if you commit a traffic offence, that’s probably enough. (R v Cliff [2004] EWCA Crim 3139 §15; cf R v Zain Cornell-Galando [2010] EWCA Crim 3151 §13)
For a disqualification to be possible under this provision, you don’t have to hold a driving licence – you can be disqualified from holding or obtaining a licence. But you do have to be convicted in court – so if the police give you a fixed penalty notice instead of prosecuting (and you don’t challenge it in court) the power to disqualify won’t apply.
http://ukcyclerules.com/2010/09/27/can-you-lose-your-driving-licence-for-a-cycling-offence/
Posted 9 months ago # -
I suspect there will be a number of drunk cyclists at the BBB this year. Hopefully they will all stay on site.
I assume that these rules or myths don't apply on private land?
Posted 9 months ago # -
I fell asleep whilst riding home drunk one morning. I woke up when my face scraped along the road. I don't get that drunk and ride anymore.
Posted 9 months ago # -
As that has never happened in relation to someone being unfit to ride a pedal cycle, I'd say it's safe to assume that no, you can't lose your licence for being drunk on a bike.
Because otherwise courts could then just go and disqualify people from driving for handling stolen goods, or assault, or fiddling their taxes....
What is sufficient reason will vary from case to case, and while this will fall short of needing to prove use of a vehicle to commit or facilitate the crime, the defendant should at least have shown either bad driving, (as in Cliff) or for there to be some connection with the offending to support the argument that a disqualification will prevent further offending. Examples may include; cases where the defendant regularly meets co-conspirators in his car; makes numerous calls in relation to the conspiracy from his car; or regularly uses the car to go to telephone kiosks to make calls.
Pretty sure there'd ned to be a bloody good reason why disqualification from driving would be seen as a 'preventative measure' for any such sentence to be valid. I spose in theory it's possible someone might just possibly be disqualified from driving for being unfit to ride a bike, but I'd reckon it would be practically impossible for a court to impose such a sentence really. And I can't see any court wasting time trying to do so, as it could be appealed successfully on a multitude of grounds.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Got stopped after a lot of beverages by the local friendly police. Clearly i was pissed as a newt and had no lights. They asked my address then let my tyres down.
That's good policing as afar as i'm concerned.Posted 9 months ago # -
Hmm, good idea that!
Prevention better than cure and all that.
I spose technically they could confiscate any equipment that you might cause harm with too, but that would be a right faff for them. Letting tyres down is technically 'criminal damage', but I spose if it's to prevent a possibly more serious crime from taking place, then justifiable. Like 'stealing' someone's car keys to prevent them from driving while unfit.
Posted 9 months ago # -
As Fred points out, if your colleague reads through it properly, that power is for use only when the defendants car is an aspect of his offending behaviour. Your car is not a factor in you riding your bike pissed, and disqualifying you would in no way prevent you riding a bike pissed, so what he quoted is irrelevant.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Wunundred!
The Fuzz agrees with Elf. Society is safe.
Posted 9 months ago # -
I know, twice in one thread. Something's not right here...
Posted 9 months ago # -
Given all the nanny state nonsense we all have to put up with I think the freedom to cycle after a couple pints should be exercised as regularly as possible
Posted 9 months ago # -
but then it states
Somewhat surprisingly, perhaps, it is not a requirement of disqualification that the offence is connected with the use of a motor vehicle: the power to disqualify under s. 146 is a general power.
?
http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/sentencing_and_ancillary_orders_applications/
Posted 9 months ago # -
Friends of mine cycled home from pub, bit piddled, but not hammered, one of them fell off, ended up in Hospital for 2 weeks with a brain injury, as helmet wasn't on properly and came off. Now recovered, but lost some sensation of smell etc...you think it won't happen to you...but you never know!
Posted 9 months ago # -
Of course it could peter - but that is the point pisshed on a bike its you that gets hurt - not innocents. Your friend did not wipe out a family in a car.
Posted 9 months ago #
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