Drunk Drivers..

[Daimeydum]

if you think you see one. what do you do?
i wondered this last night when I was let past buy a guy who has to have been drunk. at least if i was a cop i'd have pulled him.

if you call the police you could well be wasting there time, after all it's just a hunch and you could well be wrong. also you'd need to stop safely to make the call and then you could lose them, you can't tale the plate and report them as they could be home for a few days buy time the fuzz get there act together and there is no proof that they've been out driving even if the police find them paralytic in there own home.

So what do you do or what have you tried?

[ChasMill]

Depends on where you live I suppose? Around here he could be at home, sober and probably grown a beard before the BiB responded to a telephone call.

Good question though - I have always considered reporting inconsiderate / reckless drivers but never done more than thought about it.

[The Surveyor]

If you see someone stumble out of a pub and drive off, i'd report them without any delay what so ever. Wouldn't think twice about it.

If i saw somebody driving badly who looks like they could be drunk (weaving accross the road, driving unusually slowly, etc..) i'd also call the police with the registration details. They would have to be driving badly enough to notice, and you shouldn't be worried about wasting police time if you really think they could be a hazzard.

IIRC, you can use your mobile to report this even if you've no hands-free as i think 999 calls are excluded from the 'hands free' rule, but again i'd be pleased to be proved wrong.

Paul

[hornet boy]

I've done it.

We were on the way home from a day out, following a car that was all over the road. He went onto the grass verge a couple of times, and almost hit 2 or 3 cars when he was veering onto the wrong side of the road. We called the police and explained that we thought he was drunk, and gave them the details of the car, and our contact details. They told us that they would send a car in that direction to look for him. About 5-10 mins later we hit (not lierally) a traffic jam, and sure enough the police came along, spotted him, pulled him over and start breathalysing him. Only when we went past his car did we see that he had his two small children (along with his wife) in the car with him (I'd guess one was 2-3, the other about 5). About 20 mins later we had a phone call from the police control centre thanking us for the tip off, and informing us that they had arrested a suspect on suspicion of drink driving.

This was Lincolnshire police.

I would not hesitate to do it again.

[diamondgeezer]

Just make the call to the police.
You're not wasting anybodys time.

If they turn out to be under the limit, then fine, no harm done.
But if they were over..then thats another idiot off the road.

[mrmr96]

I've called in about this before. On a motorway while driving home from work there was a car weaving all over the place, between lanes/hard shoulder etc. He wasn't "making progress" it was reasonably clear that he was impaired through drugs/alcohol or similar. Control room said they'd send a car to look for him. I didn't hear anything back from it.

As has said, if they were legal then fine. If not then they could be about to kill someone and your call could cause an intervention and save a life. Do it.

[Gallen (BPH)]

I would always use the 999 service if there is something that could pose a serious danger to others - that is what it is for and the operators decide priority