Cycling back from a night out involving heavy drinking

[benb]

You probably wouldn't think like that if a cyclist swerved into the path of your car causing you to crash and injuring you and or your family or worse still causing the death of a member of your family.

Has that ever, ever happened?

To suggest that cycling drunk is as bad as driving drunk is idiotic.

 

[classic33]

Has that ever, ever happened?

To suggest that cycling drunk is as bad as driving drunk is idiotic.

Breathalised coming home from work one night as the person in charge of one of the three vehicles involved in an incident.
Driver of the Range Rover, that hit the other car, after overtaking me on the wrong side insisted I be treated the same as he was.
He claimed I'd been drinking when he passed me, causing him to go onto the wrong side of the road.
I guess it was done as much to shut him up as much as owt else.

He managed to write off the car he hit, and the three occupants inside were cut from the car.

 

[welsh dragon]

Has that ever, ever happened?

To suggest that cycling drunk is as bad as driving drunk is idiotic.

Did I say it was as bad? No. I said a drunk cyclist should be treated like a drunk driver. Did I say something like that had happened? No. I said how would you feel, if a cyclist caused an accident like that and your family was injured. Would you then feel that they should be treated more leniently because it was a bike?

 

[welsh dragon]

There are well established differences though. We have a measurable history of death and destruction caused by drunk drivers. You would struggle to find any significant equivalent for drunk cyclists.
The degree to which alcohol impairs the ability to cycle safely appears to be less than the degree to which it impairs the ability to drive safely.

I agree with what you say, im just saying that they should be treated the same as far as the law is concerned. It is a road vehicle after all.

 

[vickster]

It is an office if cycling or pushing a bike drunk

• Riding a cycle on a road or other public place while unfit to ride through drink or drugs (RTA s.30)
• Being drunk while in charge of a carriage on any highway or other public place (LA 1872, s.12; Corkery v Carpenter [1951] 1 KB 102)

For the riding while unfit offence you have to be, well, riding.

Curiously, you can only be convicted of the drunk in charge offence if you’re not riding. So if you attempt to ride but can’t, or (possibly) even if you’re just pushing your bike along, you could be convicted of being drunk in charge (RTOA s.5; DPP v Watkins [1989] QB 821, 831)

http://ukcyclerules.com/2010/09/21/can-you-ride-when-youve-been-drinking/

 

[welsh dragon]

I fully agree the, I wouldn't want the consequences on my conscience part. To take it the other way, what about a drunk pedestrian?

If they caused an accident then they should be prosecuted surely, but I suppose it is all hypothetical. How many people and cyclists would be prosecuted? Should be and are are two different things I suppose. I suppose it would all depend on the circumstances.

 

[Cubist]

Can a cyclist be charged with being' drunk and disorderly'?

Only two points to prove for the offence.
1 That the person was drunk
2. That his behaviour in a public place was disorderly.

 

[User169]

Whats the point of having a bike if you cant ride it to and fro the pub. The only downside is remembering where you parked it!

 

[MontyVeda]

When i lived out of town and socialised in town i did it quite a few times... on occasion i was stupidly drunk on the ride home. These days I'm much more sensible... usually.

 

[summerdays]

Whats the point of having a bike if you cant ride it to and fro the pub. The only downside is remembering where you parked it!

I still tease a friend about how he lost a bike because he couldn't remember where he locked it up on a pub crawl, which he has very little recollection of

 

[MarkF]

Lots of times, all of summer usually, I can use the canal to get home. Lost my glasses and cut my head after last years Saltaire festival.

 

[Glow worm]

'Refreshed' cycling is one of life's great joys

 

[vernon]

I fully agree the, I wouldn't want the consequences on my conscience part. To take it the other way, what about a drunk pedestrian?

A one year ban from walking more than a couple of metres from the front door/front gate and compulsory taxi rides at his/her expense?

 

[vernon]

When I reach the level of inebriation of the chap in the video below I eschew cycling home and seek a shrubbery to sleep it off in.

 

[vernon]

You cut your head falling in the canal?

You haven't seen what they throw into the Leeds - Liverpool canal.