I live in UK and i ride and drive in mainland Europe six or eight times per year, sometimes for a day or weekend, sometimes on longer trips. The French have introduced a law that comes into effect in July 2012 that all motorist and riders must carry a breathalyser, this applies across the board and applies even to tea-total nuns.

Drink is the largest cause of accidents in France (and plenty of other places!) with a huge majority of the culprits well over the limit of 50mg per 100 mil of blood, typically two or three times over.

I am a very light drinker and I never drink if I am going to use the bike or car. I simply cannot see the logic in this measure, what good do they expect to come from it? I can't see how it will deter those who choose to drink-drive, perhaps they are going to slap a tax on the things. The average Frenchman must be spitting blood over this. There is an election in April, perhaps a new government (if they get one) will kick this out but the whole idea seems totally bats to me.

I'm not sure but i think the biggest cause of accidents in UK is now phone-use, talk or text, which is illegal but still done, perhaps all cell phones should detect rapid movement and send you a text saying "Don't read this"  - makes as much sense. 

WOW, that sucks, In the US something like that would have a hard time going through, but i have heard talk of making it illegal for all phone use so you couldn't use it even on hands free or through the the car speakers. Drunk driving is huge in the states. it has gone down over the last few years now with stricter laws for offenders, but now distracted driving fatalities are on the rise.   

Yeah, distraction is a big issue, in UK you ARE allowed to use hands-free but only that, texting seems to be a big problem as well as chat. I think a day might come when hands-free is questioned but I think legislation here would be very difficult as it throws up so many other "distraction" issues.

maybe if they put a 50 euro tax on a persons first automobile purchase (or registration) and provided the breathalyzer at the registering office? 


I doubt that having a breathalyzer will decrease the accident amount.
On the other hand, it may increase accidents, some people are more affected by alcohol, and are severely impaired
even under the legal BAC limit.

One will do this: Hey, im drunk, i wonder if I should drive?
Oh, the breathalyzer says im good.
Stumbles to the car and runs over 90 kids on the way home.

That is why, here, police have the final say, you can get a DUI even if you do not have an over the limit BAC, if the officer determines you are driving while IMPAIRED. (many other drugs are impairing!)

so I'm confused, do they want this to be one of the ones that's hooked up to your vehicle that you have to blow into to start your vehicle, or is it just something you're supposed to carry with you for the fun of it, pretending that drunk people are gonna say "oooh, I better check my breathalyzer...." as if most drunk people who drive don't already laugh about it anyway. That would also suck because I struggle for somewhere to put my wallet/keys/phone, when I go for a ride, what are the chances these standard issue breathalysers are gonna be small enough to fit in one of my pockets. You'll see motorcycles everywhere with breathalysers bungeed to their passenger seats haha.

I don't understand why this is such a hard problem to deal with in the first place. They hand out drivers licenses like candy in the US, and I see people who have 5+ DUIs on the news all the time. Apparently they just don't care, and for some reason doing illegal and excessively dangerous things gets a free pass if you're in a car. I know that they probably don't care because they think that if you take someones license they'll just drive without one anyway, but still, you get caught doing it once, your license should be suspended for 1+ year, if you're caught doing it again, you should never be allowed to drive again, if you're ever caught a 3rd time you should just go to jail, and I don't mean for 10 days, I mean a serious jail term for attempted homicide and reckless endangerment, figure out what kind of jail term you'd give somebody if they took a gun out into public, closed their eyes and just started spinning around shooting, and give them that one.

I know they go soft on it because people say they need a car to get to work, and it would be impossible to live without one, but I don't really care. That sound like good motivation not to lose your license in the first place. If you can't handle it then you'll have to move to the city and find a new job where you can walk or ride the bus. If it was up to me I'd just say people should lose their licenses on the first offence, because when I deal with people at work who have a Dui on their record it's never just one, it's always closer to 3, so you know they're gonna do it again, I figured I'd just be nice.

I hate the phones too, even when people talk with bluetooth, as if you have to be using your hands to be distracted. I have friends i've had to stop texting back to all the time because I'd always eventually notice that they were driving when they did it, even though i've told them not to, so I just have to ignore anything they send me because I know there's always a 50/50 chance they're driving. I don't understand why driving can't actually be the activity, and not just something in the way. I have more than enough to entertain my brain when I'm out on the road.

My idea for the safest car in the world has always been mounting the drivers seat on the front bumper. Not a chance in hell you'd see anyone screwing around if a fender bender meant your legs were going to be crushed into 100 pieces haha

I don't see how mandatory possession of a breathalyser, kept under your seat or inside the car helps. It seems a single-use one will do (the old green crystals type etc) - If you feel the need to use it does the used one count as carrying? The whole concept of this law seems crazy to me. I doubt very much if someone who has had a skinful is going to bother anyway and with a 50m limit it is not going to take much to put you over anyway which I would have thought was obvious to anyone even thinking about having a drink and driving.

The French are great one for spot-fines, especially on foreigners so maybe this is all about revenue.........

p.s. recent tests in UK show that SMS messaging is more dangerous than drink driving.....

Quote from: Cal Price on March 04, 2012, 09:59:48 AM
I don't see how mandatory possession of a breathalyser, kept under your seat or inside the car helps.

I don't have an 'under your seat' 

haha

Cal - I've read something about this new French law too, and it seems just a single-use breathalyzer will do. They're commercially available for like 10-15 Euros. In fact it doesn't have much point overall.

Personally I hope it will not copied this side of the Alps. The French might be crazy, but we are often _much_ worse at idiot laws - and I'm afraid of my fellow countrymen's inventiveness. Heaven forbid.

I can see it now.  The vehicles that won't start until you put the rectangle in the rectangle hole, triangle in the triangle hole, ...

Yeah that seems pretty silly, if you were off your chops and thinking if driving I rekkon the last thing you would do us breathalyze yourself. Have the police gotten do lazy they can't be bothered doing it? Here in my state if you get done with a high range drink driving offense like double the legal limit or more after you get you license back you have to pay and have an interlock device fitted to your car so you have to blow in it and blow 0.00 for the engine to be able to start.

Simon, this one is so daft it'll never make it through the Little St Bernard pass!

Come to think of it not has my bike, something i will have to rectify in the next year or two.