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The first drink-driving conviction may have happened in London

8 points beardyw 8 hours ago 10 comments

dabeeeenster 44 minutes ago | parent

"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.

rwmj 32 minutes ago | parent

"I assure you I'm not, officer. Honestly. I've only had a few ales."

rwmj 34 minutes ago | parent

> 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.

embedding-shape 22 minutes ago | parent

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 :)

cjs_ac 18 minutes ago | parent

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.

flippyhead 18 minutes ago | parent

Is drink driving where you are drinking something while driving? That seems fine. Drinking alcohol while driving is maybe bad though.

kotaKat 8 minutes ago | parent

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!

walthamstow 14 minutes ago | parent

> 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

jaffa2 7 minutes ago | parent

Gun, possibly?

ortusdux 12 minutes ago | parent

Reminds me of the old 1980's news clip of people reacting to California's DUI laws - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xcQIoh3FQQ