Drunk Drivers

Random traffic stops by the police in Norway are common.  They set up road blocks and check every car that passes by for things like bald tires and other safety issues, unbelted passengers, people talking on cell phones and drunk drivers.  Norwegian officials don’t mess around when it comes to driving drunk.  They have zero tolerance for it and the consequences are so severe, very few people ever do it.

Norway has the strictest laws in Europe on drunk driving.  The legal limit is 0.1%, which isn’t much.  A spoonful of cough syrup might push one into the illegal zone.

Whenever we have been to a dinner party, or hosted one, there is always a designated driver and that person won’t even touch their lips to alcohol the entire evening.  When we’ve been out to a restaurant and everyone’s had a drink or two, we either take a taxi home or have someone come get us. Some people will walk an hour home even if they’ve had just one drink, because no one ever wants to run the risk of getting caught.  There is mandatory jail time involved plus loss of driver’s license and a huge fine which is on a sliding scale and usually the equivalent to a month and a half’s salary times how many points over 0.1% a person is.

There is no plea bargaining or getting a good lawyer to help out in drunk driving cases, so if a person gets caught, they are guilty.  The consequences are swift and steep.  (America has a thing or two to learn about handling drunk drivers in that regard.)

One guy I read about, the son of a rich ship builder, got caught in a random road side stop with a 0.9% alcohol level.  He had to pay about $130,000 for his drunk driving ticket, spend three weeks in jail and he lost his license for over two years.  When stuff like this makes the headlines, people understand that zero tolerance means zero tolerance no matter who you are.  The law states if he gets caught driving drunk again within five years, he’ll lose his license for life.  They don’t mess around.

I also read about a woman that got caught in a random stop with alcohol on her breath.  She spent thirty days in prison chopping wood, she lost her license for three years, had to go to rehab, and her fine was the equivalent of about $78,000.  Her blood alcohol level was 0.7%, which in Washington State, isn’t even illegal.