This sentence:
What I mean by unsafe here is that a lot of moderatly drunk people can drive perfectly fine as long as nothing goes wrong, but they can't cope with any problems.
is wrong. A lot of moderately drunk people think they can drive perfectly fine as long as nothing goes wrong. The fact that these retards have a habit of featuring in the accident statistics disproves that (drunken) notion.


This hinges on "as long as nothing goes wrong" and just what that means. I daresay most people would interpret "something going wrong" as major as another car running a red-light across you. Thus, the justification rolled out that slightly drunken people think they can still drive safely, and may even be able to give that appearance. It's just that it doesn't actually take much for "something to go wrong" - a fellow driver going past that you didn't see coming up behind you, a foot slipping off the brake pedal, a light red at that time of night that you never not seen green before...

We have an ad campaign in Australia at the moment aimed at exactly this type of perception: after a few beers, sure, you can usually drive safely home. Steering, changing gears, navigating familiar streets are not hugely taxing for an intoxicated brain.

Wade.