French requiring breathalysers?

@P-J

How did I know that response was on it's way?

ap·a·thy definition
Pronunciation: /ˈap-ə-thē/
Function: n
pl -thies ; : lack of feeling or emotion

Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2007 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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American Heritage
apathy ap·a·thy (āp'ə-thē)
n.
Lack of interest, concern, or emotion; indifference.


If you use the definitions above, I'm showing about 50% apathy towards it. It concerns me, I don't agree with it, I won't get in the car with him when he's been drinking, and I've told him enough times that he shouldn't be doing it, and if one day the local rozzers don't let him off or he ends up in an accident, he'll get nothing but an "I told you so" from me. I'm not going to get emotional about it though, I'm 500 miles away and there's feck all I can do change it.

Your being a bit naive when it comes to the French police I'm afraid, especially in rural areas. In France it's not what you know but who you know. It's a rural area, everybody knows everybody and he's known many of these coppers since they were in nappies. They are not going to book him unless they have no other choice because he probably drinks aperitif's with their uncle and they'll get kicked off the village petanque team. There are thousands of villages up and down France where the elderly men have known the local coppers since they were in nappies, in rural areas it's par for the course.

It's also a culture issue, the education the British public have had on drink driving, either isn't getting through or it's being ignored. They don't have a culture whereby they listen and obey. The number of houses I've been to where a crowd of people turn up for an aperitif in the middle of the day, in cars, then drive them away afterwards with me thinking, "there's no way you should be getting behind the wheel of that car!", whereas they don't even think about what they've had to drink until there's a rozzer in the rear view mirror (and that's only a problem if they don't know the rozzer). I just accept that driving round the rural roads mid to late afternoon, I need to be double careful as there will be drunk drivers about. It's engrained, and it's endemic, there's nothing I can do to change it.

Probability does not state that he's likely to have an accident any time soon, unless he drives his own car into a hedge or a ditch. To have accident with another vehicle, there needs to be another vehicle on the road. Lets just say this isn't an area that suffers traffic problems! If he manages to pass one car on his 10 minute journey without colliding with it, then his risk of an accident for that journey has passed.

PS: Portugal is worse, much worse.

[maviczap]

Originally Posted by P-J

There is of course the possibility that I have misread what you have written

No mis-read but mis-interpreted, as its his FIL is French, like RALPH says its part of ze culture, oo lala

@ Ralph

Ah I see, I am therefore guessing that the FIL in question is on the continent?
If thats the case then.....Darn right those guys are f'king mental with their drinking and driving escapades especially in some parts of Spain and Italy!

The culture is very much different and yes I agree they do seem to have a special relationship with the local constabulary as I have witnessed myself!

I guess we will agree to disagree with regards to chances of being involved in a collision as I always believe it not necessarily the drink-driver that needs to be at fault for a collision to occur but it would be hard to ignore that alcohol isn't be a contributing factor.

Originally Posted by maviczap

No mis-read but mis-interpreted, as its his FIL is French, like RALPH says its part of ze culture, oo lala

Hmm, maybe I should have made that a bit clearer

I assumed since we were talking about France it was implied in context, but obviously not.

[maviczap]

I knew what you were on about, but thats only cos I know your in laws are French