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- Hacker News
- Is drink driving where you are drinking something while driving? That seems fine. Drinking alcohol while driving is maybe bad though.by flippyhead
- As once before said: If they didn't want you to drink, John Deere wouldn't have put a cupholder on it. C'mon, that's entrapment!by kotaKat
- "'Am I drunk' what exactly, officer?" has probably been the basis of some good skits.by zamadatix
- > Police, he observed, had developed ways of stopping a runaway horse, but stopping a runaway motor car was another matter entirely.
I'm curious about the ways of stopping a horse
by walthamstow - Gun, possibly?by jaffa2
- Horses are very easy to trip if you can get close enough, at least close enough to be able to throw something if nothing else. Lassos help also and is a bit less violent.
- "The following day, he appeared at Marlborough Street Police Court, where he admitted that he had consumed “two or three glasses of beer”."
19th Century version of a few small beers.
by dabeeeenster - "I assure you I'm not, officer. Honestly. I've only had a few ales."by rwmj
- Title is confusing, it should be "The first conviction ever recorded may have happened in London"by raverbashing
- Reminds me of the old 1980's news clip of people reacting to California's DUI laws - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xcQIoh3FQQby ortusdux
- I watched some old driver safety films on DVD a while back. The attitudes were way different, the message on drunk driving was "you probably wouldn't be legally drunk for two, maybe three beers, but your reaction time will be terrible and you will live with regret if you hurt or killed someone, so don't do it."by toast0
- I watched this clip several times and don't think it's California, based on a) the southern accents of both interviewees and b) the guy's hat which I /think/ says "Fort Worth". My guess is this is in Texas and is a reaction to the implementation of 0.08% BAC and/or other changes urged by MADD in the 80s/90s.by hydhyd
- > it would not be until 1904 that driving licences and vehicle registration numbers were introduced
A fun fact is that for many years, to get a driving license you just had to apply at the Post Office. There was no test at all. My grandmother obtained her license this way in the 1930s, and drove on the same license right through til she became too unwell to drive in the 1990s, and never took a test.
by rwmj - today, right now, there is no driving test in Mississippi. Its a paper test and eye test and BOOM you get a license.by edm0nd
- In Belgium it was until 1977 that you could buy the license.by OptionOfT
- > There was no test at all.
It may sounds crazy to us europeans but it is not much different than current situation in North and South America and probably many other parts of the world.
My spouse and her friends passed the test on a simulator. She got it at first attempt while forgetting to put her seatbelt on + a few other minor violations. A friend of her told me she got it although she ran over a pedestrian on the simulator in the exam! She later got her licence in the Netherlands after several failed theorical and driving tests.
by prmoustache - My grandfather got his driving licence in 1940s Australia without doing a test, because the police sergeant who was supposed to conduct the test couldn't be bothered and was more interested in a ten-shilling note.by cjs_ac
- This is also how one would obtain a firearm or shotgun certificate - apply at the post office for a few (shillings?). I believe when introduced these certificates weren't even mandatory to purchase or own a firearm, and merely served to evidence your good character if a firearm dealer didn't like the look of you.by backhold
- Back in the day in my country, you could apparently get milder punishment if you were driving while drunk, because it's harder to steer properly then. From https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABilkrock_i_%C3%A5s...:
> In 1928, a serious accident involving considerable property damage occurred on the main road [...] At the subsequent trial in Klippan, it was said that the Örkelljunga resident, who had caused the accident, received a more lenient sentence because he had been drinking spirits and therefore had difficulty steering.
Different times :)