AIBU to think drink driving and speeding are morally equivalent

[Highdaysandholidaze]

One gets treated as unforgivable, the other as a peccadillo. The sort of thing we all do, so it can’t be that bad.

But drink driving isn’t bad in and of itself. If someone wants to down a bottle of gin and drive round a deserted island then good luck to them. Drink driving is bad because it increases the risk of hurting or killing other people.

Speeding’s the same, isn’t it? It increases your odds of hurting or killing someone.

Does it make it worse if you kill someone with your car because you’re half cut rather than if you’re over the limit?

One defence people seem to have is that their speeding wasn’t dangerous. They’ll say that the speed limit was silly in that area, or that there wasn’t anyone else on the road.

But people used to say the same sort of stuff about drink driving. And tbh Lewis Hamilton will have better reflexes after four beers than I do sober.

So, AIBU?

I agree, so many people speed and think it's ok

Fully agree.

Yep I also know someone who will consistently speed everywhere (full of the ‘it’s an empty road’ ‘there’s no houses’ excuses etc etc yet is in uproar when someone speeds pasts their house!
Hypocritical much.

Interesting - I had assumed drunk driving was more dangerous, but a quick google suggests they pose the same level of risk. Also the same quick search suggests that 'drowsy driving' is just as dangerous as drunk driving!

I think people over estimate their ability - they think they can 'handle' 90mph, so it's ok?

They aren’t the same, which is reflected in the law.

You can also have a lapse in concentration or be mistaken about the speed limit, you can do neither of those when you knowingly drink and drive.

I agree speeding is bad but I don’t think it’s usually up there with getting behind the wheel when your judgment and reactions will automatically be impaired.

Also depends on what you mean by speeding - accidentally creeping up to 1 or 2 mph over the spend limit is very different to bombing down a 20 (or even 30) mph limit residential street at 40 mph, or going 90 down the motorway. The latter maybe do have an equivalence to drink driving but nothing the former.

But why aren’t they the same? I get that the law treats them differently - but legal difference isn’t the same as moral difference.

I get that people can be only slightly speeding, but then people can be only slightly over the alcohol limit too.

Surely being drunk behind the wheel increases the likelihood that someone will speed - either because they don't care what speed they are doing or because they can't control it due to the alcohol.

So speeding - bad
Drink driving - unforgiveable

Nope, the times I've been doing 35 in a 30 zone, realised my speed has crept up then slowed back down is nothing like getting bladdered then getting behind the wheel.

People see it differently as one is an absolute (you are either or under the limit) where the speed limit varies per road... and even then doesn't take into account all the variables on that road.

People do view going at 80mph on a clear well maintained motorway to go past a primary school at 40mph at 3.30 on a weekday.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz But why is one bad and the other unforgivable? If drink driving is bad because it leads to speeding isn’t speeding while sober almost worse?

“Speeding” covers a wide range of offences. 5mph over a 40mph limit? Pretty normal.
50mph over a 40mph limit? Seriously dangerous.

@PurpleDaisies

So does drunk driving. Half a beer over the limit is different from a bottle of Jack Daniel’s over the limit.

@Highdaysandholidaze

But why aren’t they the same? I get that the law treats them differently - but legal difference isn’t the same as moral difference.

I get that people can be only slightly speeding, but then people can be only slightly over the alcohol limit too.

When someone is genuinely slightly speeding, notices and slows down, they've corrected the error they didn't notice they were making at first. If I've been drinking alcohol and drive while over the limit, I'm well aware I've been drinking and there's a chance I'm over the limit. In my case, I can drink so I'm under the limit and still be drunk. I'd be extremely unsafe behind the wheel, but my blood alcohol levels would be legal, so I avoid alcohol before driving completely.

@Highdaysandholidaze

But why aren’t they the same? I get that the law treats them differently - but legal difference isn’t the same as moral difference.

I get that people can be only slightly speeding, but then people can be only slightly over the alcohol limit too.

They're not the same because you can have a momentary lapse of concentration and be a couple of miles over the speed limit and then rectify it immediately.

If you have alcohol in your system you can't immediately rectify it.

I agree that excessive speeding is very dangerous, but your general argument seems to be oversimplification of lots of shades of nuance!

I think there are degrees of seriousness for speeding - couldn't get worked up about 75 on the motorway, or not noticing a temporarary limit, not slowing quickly enough downhill etc. Whereas drink driving is open and shut for me, regardless of the level someone is over.

YABU.

With drunk driving you are taking choice away. Choice to slow down, choice to stop at the light, choice to stay in your own lane, choice not to mount a pavement. It doesn’t just make your reaction times slower, it impairs your whole decision making process.

If someone accidentally creeps slightly over the limit and then corrects it quickly, fair enough. I'm sure literally everyone has done that. But people who knowingly speed, even if it's only a little over the limit, are immoral and pretty stupid imo.

I will never understand how people can justify speeding and not feel embarrassed, it makes you look so foolish, selfish, and arrogant.

@Ikona,

But by creeping up to 35 you’re significantly increasing your risk of hurting or killing someone - stats below from Federation of Traffic Safety in US.

What’s interesting is that - from your post - you seem a responsible, cautious person with a strong sense of social responsibility. It’s scary that speeding is so normalised that even good people, people with a strong sense of social responsibility, think it’s kind of ok.

‘The average risk of severe injury for a pedestrian struck by a vehicle reaches 10% at an impact speed of 16 mph, 25% at 23 mph, 50% at 31 mph, 75% at 39 mph, and 90% at 46 mph. The average risk of death for a pedestrian reaches 10% at an impact speed of 23 mph, 25% at 32 mph, 50% at 42 mph, 75% at 50 mph, and 90% at 58 mph.’

The courts do make a distinction in the level of alcohol. Slightly over the limit is treated very different to completely bladdered.

(People do commit drink driving without realising it...Next day driving. More people aware of it now obviously, but not long ago many wouldn't think twice about it!)

Isn’t is quite likely someone who is drink driving is also speeding?

I think it's because drink driving is a deliberate choice on the part of the driver.

The end result can be the same but "accidental" speeding can be corrected (eg you notice it's crept up and immediately slow down or realise the limit has changed). With drunk driving you are a risk for the entire journey, there is no opportunity to correct it.

.

They are not remotely comparable.

If you drink alcohol and drive, you know you are not in control of the car.

I can easily do 40 in a 30 limit and be in perfect control of the car and certainly at night, be no risk to anyone.

Of course doing something like 100 on a motorway is unacceptable, or 50 past a school where loads of kids are coming out, but that is a different point. Context matters (from a moral if not legal perspective).

When drinking and driving, there is no such thing as an acceptable context.

@GunsNShips, but I don’t think I care whether someone kills me because they’ve made a choice to speed or because they’ve made a choice to have an extra beer.

Not the same .

You can (and I do) drive fast and be in complete control of a vehicle.

Hope that helps