Alcohol and camping....

[T6 CFO]

so if you park your car outside your house in the road. then go to the pub. then walk home with your keys in your pocket like alot of people do as it has house key on too. then you can get arrested? for being drunk in charge? ridiculous . now can you ride a bike drunk? that's a question. well I will be riding mine soon and I've had a few

No that’s not the case.


Mike

 

[flying banana]

now if only if I could stay off the forum when I've had a few.......

 

[westfalia]

now can you ride a bike drunk? that's a question. well I will be riding mine soon and I've had a few

Been there, done it, fell off, not nice.
There is a difference of course of being over the limit and
being blathered.
I was the latter, never again.

 

[flying banana]

the title of the thread involves 2 of my favourite things. alcohol and camping

 

[Amarillo]

how'd you get caught and did they threaten your license? bit unfair if they did as you don't need a license to ride a bike. get a tandem and let some one else steer it

They pulled me over with blue flashing lights. No threat to my licence. It is the same set of laws which govern drunk and disorderly. I defended myself in both cases - if found guilty I could have faced a fine of ~£20: this was ~30 years ago. Basically, it seems, if you can ride a bike without falling off you are not drunk, whatever the police may claim about slurred speech, glazed eyes and a smell of alcohol. No blood test or breathalyser.

We have a tandem. I think that either one or both of captain and stoker can be charged with drunk in charge of a bicycle on a tandem.


Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu

 

[motacyclist]

the title of the thread involves 2 of my favourite things. alcohol and camping

Won't ask what the others are but I won't come knockin' when the van's a rockin'

 

[WelshGas]

so if you park your car outside your house in the road. then go to the pub. then walk home with your keys in your pocket like alot of people do as it has house key on too. then you can get arrested? for being drunk in charge? ridiculous . now can you ride a bike drunk? that's a question. well I will be riding mine soon and I've had a few

Only if you sit in the vehicle that is parked on a public road.

 

[Kmann]

This is my perspective as I recal from differend reading and memory:

In many countries, you can park and sleep in public areas like streets, parking lots, etc. (unless other stated). If you do so, you still are not allowed to camp. That means not place something outside the car, elevate the roof or swivel the seats. Tha case is that you should be able to move your car within short notice if the police make the request. In this case, you should not drink over the limit - wish in some countries are as little as noting (0.0).

If you park in a private area (i.e. a freinds drive or campinggrounds) you are able to pop the roof and sviwel seats so there can be no doubt that you have no intent do drive.

But no matter what you do, never have the keys in the ignition ;-)

 

[Farley]

So,

• I will not park where I can be moved on...
• I will not have the keys in my pocket...
• I will swivel the drivers seat...
• I will wind out the awning...
• I will ‘pop the top”...
• I will make the lower bed...
• I will open the Chateauneuf du Pape...

sorted!

Thanks

 

[stephen watson]

I was wild camping in galloway last week and a polite and informative farmer asked me to move on in the morning and he mentioned most of the points in this thread. I'd had a small beer the night before at a chippy some time before I drove to where we stopped and had completely forgotten the lower alcohol limits in Scotland meaning I was probably over the limit. Easy to forget many countries very sensibly have stricter laws than England.

 

[PAMMYVAN]

Yes, it has been discussed, and it comes on every forum ad nauseous.

I repeat the advice I received from one of the country's leading motoring lawyers.

If you are on what can be deemed as a public highway, or a space to which the public have free access (such as a pub carpark) then yes you can be done.

The offense of drinking whilst in charge is a statutory offence, i.e. guilty, incumbent on you proving yourself innocent.

As long as you have the keys to the vehicle or they are in your charge, are in the vehicle and over the limit then you can be done.

However both the police and CPS are aware of the "spirit" of the offence, which is to prevent someone getting around a drink-driving charge by pretending to be "sleeping it off".

In applying the spirit the police initially and following that the CPS will look at the circumstances.

Are you stopping by pre-arranged invite? (Britstop for example).

Have you just recently stopped? (Engine warm, no witnesses to you parking up hours ago, etc)....

Is the vehicle capable of being just started up and driven off? (Seats turned round, bed made up etc all suggest no)....

Are you so inebriated that you are likely to still be over the limit at a reasonable time tomorrow morning?

It is up to the individual to consider their vulnerability and act accordingly. There is no golden answer.

From my position if I have turned up, made arrangements with the pub licensee / farmer / cafe owner / etc to stop overnight, have made my bed, have put the keys out of reach but in a safe place, then I feel quite safe to have a drink responsibly, not so inebriated that I cannot hold a reasonable conversation with a police officer, then I would feel quite confident having my day in court should the need arise.

Should I be wild camping, on a public highway or on private land when I could be asked to move on, don't drink.

Mrs PV here I totally with Granny Jen on a campsite yes drink what you like. On a roadside don’t have a single drink

 

[Zebedee]

And remember in France even though they produce oceans of yummy wine they have a zero tolerance and love breathylyising the next morning too. I stick to alcohol free cider (can’t taste the difference, or wine as I have had to do too many emergency dash’s to the vet of an evening!

 

[Ksar-el-kebir]

And remember in France even though they produce oceans of yummy wine they have a zero tolerance and love breathylyising the next morning too. I stick to alcohol free cider (can’t taste the difference, or wine as I have had to do too many emergency dash’s to the vet of an evening!

My favourite country is Morocco. There you can smoke wherever you like and there’s no breathalyser. BUT if you have an accident beware! Not much fun in a Moroccan jail especially in Ramadan!