Out of Control
A few years back an acquaintance of mine had a rather rude awakening. He was a young fellow that was not adverse to having a drink and a good time. He was, at least as far as I’m aware, law abiding and would never drink and drive.
After finishing up late one night he decided that he was too under the weather to drive. He had left his car in the driveway of a friend’s house and rather than disturb the household he decided to sleep in the car.
Sometime, just prior to dawn, there came an abrupt knock at the car window. An Officer asked him what he was doing, to which he replied that he was sleeping. After a few more pieces of conversation the Officer informed him that as he was in control of the car that he was going to breath-test him.
“What?!?†I hear you say. Yes, that’s right the Officer breath tested him. He was found to have had a low range blood alcohol level but never the less he was still over the limit. Subsequently it was upheld that he was “Drink Driving†and he was dealt with according to the law.
Now I ask, “When are you in control of the vehicle?†According to the event I spoke of above you can be in control of the vehicle even when you are sound asleep in the driver’s seat and parked on private property.
So with this being the case it brings me to the point of this post. If the above events can happen even though you are asleep and do not even have the engine running, let alone actually driving, then why is it that even though you cannot use your mobile phone whilst driving that you are allowed to pull over to the side of the road, often in a precarious location (such as the emergency lane) and have your conversation?
Now I’m not advocating that our local constabulary start topping the government coffers by doing this, but I am wondering about the inequality of our out of control, often inadequate, laws in this fine country of ours.