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The first drink-driving conviction may have happened in London

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/the-worlds-first-drink-driving-conviction-may-have-happened-in-london-92107/
8•beardyw•8h ago

Comments

dabeeeenster•47m ago
"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•34m ago
"I assure you I'm not, officer. Honestly. I've only had a few ales."
rwmj•37m ago
> 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•24m ago
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•21m ago
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•21m ago
Is drink driving where you are drinking something while driving? That seems fine. Drinking alcohol while driving is maybe bad though.
kotaKat•11m ago
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•16m ago
> 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•10m ago
Gun, possibly?
ortusdux•14m ago
Reminds me of the old 1980's news clip of people reacting to California's DUI laws - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xcQIoh3FQQ

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The first drink-driving conviction may have happened in London

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/the-worlds-first-drink-driving-conviction-may-have-happened-...
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