There’s a tendency, especially online, for any conversation around an incident to turn into a straight defence or a straight condemnation. Truth is, you can acknowledge responsibility and still talk about how drink-driving limits work in the real world. One doesn’t cancel the other.
Leaving a scene versus being over the limit
One point that often gets lost is that different offences carry different weight in terms of punishment. Leaving the scene of an accident is serious in its own right, but drink-driving is treated, rightly, as a major risk to everyone else on the road.
That’s why, if someone does the right thing after the fact and reports what’s happened, it can be seen as at least showing a basic moral line. Not “all is forgiven”, not “job done”. Just that there’s a difference between trying to face up to it and trying to disappear.
How little it can take to go over
What surprises a lot of folk is how quickly you can be over the limit without feeling out your face. The 50mg drink-drive limit in Scotland isn’t something most people can translate into real-life measures on a night out.
For some people, it can be around a single pint of beer, or a 175ml glass of wine, and that’s before you even get into how different bodies handle alcohol. If it’s being reported that someone was well above the limit, then yes, that moves beyond a genuine “oops, didn’t realise” into something harder to defend.
Cocktails only add to the confusion. The alcohol content can vary massively depending on what’s in it and how it’s poured. Two drinks that look the same can land very differently.
The next-morning danger supporters underestimate
This is the bit plenty supporters don’t want to hear. If you’ve had a big day at the football, then drive the next morning, you can still be in bother even if you feel fine. People talk about “sleeping it off” as if it’s a reset button, but alcohol doesn’t work like that.
A rough rule of thumb many go by is that it takes about an hour per unit for your body to process alcohol. So if you’ve had a heavy session, even a mid-morning drive can be a gamble. And it’s not just about getting done for it either. It’s about reaction times, judgement, and the fact other people on the road haven’t agreed to take that risk with you.
So no, this isn’t a defence. It’s just the reality: the only sure way to be safe is simple. If you’re driving, don’t drink.
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