I drank drove (sort of) but I didn't know what else to do. There's a (not v good) diagram.

[Uriahsnose]

I drove to my local pub like I do a couple of times a week. If I am having alcohol, I leave the car there and collect it the following day.

The other night, my neighbour/friend came in, was sober and offered to drive me home in my car-he only lives around the corner. As this is safer for me than walking home I agreed.

Some houses on my street have front gardens, some have drives. I have a front garden as does one of my next door neighbours. Terraced, narrow, village one way street-parking can be a bit awkward but the houses that don't have a drive all have a designated parking space.

So my friend goes to park my car and it transpires that he doesn't know how to reverse park. He tried to drive into my parking space but the NDN with a drive's car was sticking out of their drive, and the other neighbour (in front of where my car would go) is parked outside her house. So it ended up with my car sticking out at an angle, blocking the road. I told my friend 'you'll need to reverse park, you can't leave it blocking the road'. He tried but couldn't do it-kept saying 'I can't because I can't see!' And 'will that do' (no, it wouldn't!) so in the end I told him to get out and I parked it myself.

I was so nervous-even though I wasn't drunk (I'd had three of those mini bottles of wine) and I knew I couldn't hurt anybody, but It's still illegal isn't it?

AIBU to think that if you can't reverse park, you shouldn't be driving a tonne of metal?

(Just realised I haven't accurately depicted the gardens in my diagram but the basic set up/situation is the same)!

Never acceptable to get behind the wheel after a drink.

Your friend should have parked elsewhere and you moved it the next day.

How is it essential? You just look for another parking space. It isn't dangerous in the slightest. Driving whilst over the alcohol limit OTOH... I know which sort of driver I'd rather meet on the road.

Yeah in my friends case, I actually can't remember if he was just spotted driving badly or whether he bashed another car. I'll have to ask him. Definitely lost his licence though and had to retake his test.

Exactly this.

Legally you were drunk-driving and could be charged. You were also far more likely to have had an accident than if sober. However if the driving was just maneuvering into a parking space, it is likely that any casualties would have been to you, your car and the other parked cars. And you weren't paralytic (though alcohol inhibits your decision making and judgement) so unlikely to mistake accelorator for brake for example. So to me that is less concerning than, driving home from the pub and endangering other drivers, walkers etc. Not sure what your insurance cover would have been had you damaged your or another car.

Yeah, it doesn't take much.

Even if you're not driving "badly" as such, the police can pull you and breathalyse you, especially if they smell alcohol. If you watch those police shows, lots of people get pulled for fairly minor infractions and then end up arrested for drink-driving.

I reckon I could reverse park with a bottle of wine down me. I'd have to take it incredibly slow and wear very sensible shoes though.

But I'll never truly know because you can't park a car after a bottle of wine!!! Yabu

A whole bottle of wine is a lot. It is done now and luckily all well, if it were me i would have got friend to park further away safely or worse case park back at the pub.

Your friend does you a kindness, and the next thing,you come on here starting a thread to slag them off?

Isn’t 3 small bottles of wine equivalent to a full bottle? if this the case YABU. I have a very low tolerance for drunk drivers, pure selfishness.

It happened, honestly! I suspect his parking was a trifle erratic.

Why didn’t he just walk you home?

That's what people say right before they kill someone.

Irresponsible and foolish and I would not be posting on mumsnet in a gloating tone of voice. I'd be ashamed.

I never reverse park. I haven't since my test which was last century. I'm a safe driver and I'm quite happy to walk further to park if necessary. I would never drive after even one drink.

Aside from the drink driving, I'd never let someone else drive my car unless I'd added them on my insurance.

I think if he's got comprehensive insurance on his own car (has he?) he'd be partially insured to drive yours, but only 3rd party fire and theft.

Stop taking the car to the pub, it's just asking for trouble. You've already shown you're willing to (briefly) get behind the wheel when you've had a drink. What's next? "I've only had. ..it's not far...etc etc"?

Leave the car at home. Walk or get a taxi. Or don't go.

Assuming the 3 mini bottles of wine were all OP had and assuming she didn't down them all 20 minutes before she left the pub, I doubt that her alcohol levels would be high enough to put her above the limit for drink driving.

You're both idiots - you especially imo

I drank drove (sort of)

No, you drank drove.

I was absolutely fine, and I knew I was

Said every drink driver ever. Incredibly stupid thing to think. Alcohol affects your judgement and spatial awareness before you realise it.

Sorry but that's incorrect. The mini bottles are 187ml each. 187 x 3 = 561ml. A bottle of wine is 750ml.

Three mini-bottles is the equivalent of 2/3 of a bottle, just clearing that up (assuming they were 187ml).

Obviously still over the limit, but in the interests of clarity.

I can't really damn you for this OP, obviously you could have been in trouble had a passing police car decided to stop and breathalyse you, but in the great scheme of things it was a low-risk act. Probably don't do it again though because you are asking for trouble!

Depends on the mini bottles, doesn’t it? I’ve definitely had ones that are 250ml.

Even at 3 x 187ml it’s likely over the drink-drive limit, though. Unless OP finished drinking a few hours before she left the pub.

Well you did it OP and thankfully no harm done. I know it seems like a very small manoevre but what if a child, dog or cat had run behind the car, or you had scraped a neighbour's car. Questions would be asked and you'd be in hot water.

Blimey, I wouldn't be able to walk in a straight line let alone reverse park my car.

I hope you never have....people always overestimate their abilities when drunk it's the sober who can tell