[Alby]

What is a person who drinks alcoholic beverages then decides to drive in the HKSAR called? the action that the person is doing is called what?

Is one way grammatically correct than the other or this simply another BRITISH English vs. USA English thing?

[PDLM]

" Stupid "

[Skyhook]

Alby lol.

Are we talking premier league tanked up to the gills have a drink, then drive home, and thus, be visibly effected by alcohol enough that they shouldbnt be in command of any vehicle.

or

Are we tralking a couple of glasses of red wine etc and a 2 hour drinking break before driving home....?

[carang]

i think it comes down to uk vs us

in canada we call it drunk driving (actually, driving under the influence...DUI)

it wasn't until i got here that i heard "drink driving"

[freeier]

isn't drunk subjective ? whereas drink is just indication of an action ?

[Skyhook]

Drink driving would apply to UK, Australia and New Zealand.

As it implies intent, as opposed to actually being drunk.

You can have a couple of standard alcoholic drinks over a given hour and not be clinically "drunk " as such.

So drink driving leaves things a little more open to explanantion, drunk driving should mean that you were drunk behind the wheel of a car. Which is past tense.

Moral to this story is if you were caught drunk driving, then you have to be drunk, to use the phrase.

As opposed to drink driving, meaning anybody who has had a couple of beers and then gets behind the wheel, technically is or has been drink driving, regardless if they were affected by the alcohol or not.

Which is why most 1st world countries out there have an averaged one size fits all driver blood alcohol measurement road law, of a maximum amount of alcohol that can be tolerated, before it impairs a drivers judgement.

0.5 is the Australian set limit. Which roughly equates to 2 stand alcohollic drinks per hour, all night long with an hour break before you decide to get behind the wheel again.

[Sleuth]

Originally Posted by PDLM

" Stupid "

Which is being polite, especially in a place with so much public transportation.

[Alby]

Thanks Geo guys and gals,

All your comments and reasoning actually make complete sense ... I have just been watching the news and reading the newspaper and curious to know why "drink driving" is used and not "drunk driving"

[dannyw]

on a slightly separate note, what's the law on drinking and driving in hong kong??
(i'm not encouraging DUI, more like my own curiosity)

i heard from friends that technically even if you are way way way over any sort of limit, the police in hk do not have authority to breathalyse you unless u caused some kind of accident... e.g. even at road blocks....

any one clarify? i know in the UK they do random test but never heard of anything like it in HK.

[KnowItAll]

Handy breath-test tools to be introduced