Drugged drivers...

[Full Noise]

Geez there’s some BS in this thread. So many parrots going on about things they know nothing about along with the usual stereotypical crap that comes out.
The same old tired lines like:
Truck drivers take drugs.
Trucks damage the roads.
Everything should go on rail.
Some truck driver was angry so he must have been on drugs.

A while back I rang that parrot, Derryn Hinch on 3AW to defend the percentage of truck drivers caught at a blitz at the Broadford weighbridge. He had some senior copper on saying that five, yes, that’s right FIVE truck drivers were caught with illegal drugs in their systems at a recent blitz at the weighbridge.

Then they started crapping on about the fact that they tested 53 trucks to get this number. In my calculations, that’s a strike rate of 2.65%. That’s hardly a figure that would get anyone exited, however, what they failed to mention was the procedure they follow to detect these people.

It’s not like a booze bus where they just wheel in the first 50 cars and whammo, there’s your five drivers.

They stopped approximately 900 heavy vehicles during the blitz and selectively targeted the 53 heavy vehicles to undergo the drug screen. It’s out of that number that they came up with the 5 drivers. If the police really wanted a high strike rate for drugged drivers, they could position themselves around a few selected night clubs or rave parties. They’d get a lot more people that way and the people that they would catch would, in my opinion, be a far greater risk to the general community than a truck driver who's taken a pill to fight the effects of fatigue.

There must be some reason why the police don’t target high profile nightclubs for drug use? I just can’t figure out what it is.

As Homer Simpson said, “people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forty percent of all people know that”.

And the same goes for the people who believe the crap that the likes of the NSW RTA, Vicroads, police and state governments want us to believe about the amount of people who have drugs in their systems and drive.

The problem isn’t anywhere near as bad as they make it out to be.

By the way, I don’t take illegal drugs and haven’t taken anything illegal to do my job. I’ve only ever taken Sudafed or Codral and if they don’t help, I find a place to stop. I’ve only ever been drug tested twice on the side of the road and have no problem with it, in fact I welcome it. At least that way, when I get tested, it’s another negative that goes on the percentages.

Unlike many others, I do not judge people who have something in their system when they are driving. I’d much rather that the bloke coming towards me in the middle of the night have something that keeps him alert than have him drift into my lane half asleep and taking me out.