Drinking and Driving a Way of Life and Death in Louisiana

[CShine]

Although drivers are forbidden to have open containers of alcohol, Louisiana is one of 13 states where passengers are allowed to drink. Police say that allows drinking drivers to simply hand off a drink to someone else in the car to avoid a ticket. State legislators hope that changes in August, when a new law takes effect banning passengers, too, from drinking. But police expect the new law to be broken regularly in this land of drive-through daiquiri shops, go cups and all-night bars.

"In Louisiana we drink to celebrate births and drink to mourn deaths. We drink early and we drink late. We drink all day long for any reason. And an awful lot of people keep drinking in a car," said Ronnie Jones, a former state trooper who now teaches criminal law at Tulane.

According to figures compiled by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 48 percent of the 938 fatal accidents in Louisiana in 2000 (454) were alcohol related. Only six states had higher percentages, and all of them except Texas had fewer total accidents.

"We're always right up there on top," said Cathy Childers, Louisiana executive director of MADD. "It's so sad to drive up to a light and see people in the next car drinking alcohol. Maybe it will be one small step toward raising children who don't grow up thinking it's all right to drink and drive."

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBSGX23EVD.html

[wellstone_democrat]

1. what the hell is a "go cup?"

When I visited Texas long ago, you could drink beer and drive but not hard liquor. You *would* see drivers stopped at lights sometimes with a beer bottle. I thought it was the most exotic place on earth.

Can't do that now but we have a horrible drunk/accident rate in western Texas. I do see that we are still in the running for #1 on that MADD list...big surprise

[FightinNewDem]

3. Go Cups

A Go Cup is a plastic cup, often used as a souvenier item by some of the more touristy French Quarter bars and by Mardi Gras "krewes".

In the New Orleans scheme of things, the big problem is not public intoxication, but the possibility of broken glass from discarded beer bottles. Hence, you can get your cold frosty to go in a plastic cup.

Curiously, even political candidates use go cups as promotional items. Somewhere, I have a go cup that was distributed by Mary Landrieu's gubernatorial campaign in 1995. Try explaining that to a starchy New England puritan!

[finecraft]

4. I have lived in Louisiana for 25 years...

and have never understood the concept of the "drive-through" daiquiri place. We have a million of them here. I guess what you are supposed to do is stop and pick up a daiquiri on your way home, and drink it when you get there.

Sure.

What happens is you drive up to the window, place your order and are handed a 26oz. daiquiri in a Styrofoam cup with a plastic lid on it. The lid is sealed shut by placing scotch tape over the top of it in a big X shape to cover the slit in the lid for the straw. There you go....you now have a "tamper proof" lid over your daiquiri in case you are tempted to drink from it while you are driving.

Oh, and they also hand you a straw with your daquiri....(I guess in case you don't have any at home when you go to drink your drink.)

After 25 years, this is still the most insane thing I have ever heard of.

[wellstone_democrat]

5. hilarious description

Man, daquiris were an old lady drink last I heard!

[crossroads]

7. They aren't any more, they are pretty cool at least in N.O....

they are everywhere... :shrug:

[stickdog]

8. I usually get a gallon or two.

I always laugh when they hand it through the car window!

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

10. that IS pretty exotics...I thought Louisiana was bible-belt.

...color me 'suprised', as Id expect some fairly strict alchohol laws. Is this daquire drive-thru thing limited to New Orleans?

[finecraft]

17. Not hardly. I'm around Lafayette

These places are all over. From Alexandria north to Shreveport is pretty Southern Baptist, but they have them in Shreveport too.

Want to be colored even more surprised? My husband is a blackjack dealer at a casino. I took my mother to play the slot machines one night, and my husband stopped me and said to go check out the craps table and see who was there. I walked over and who do I see, but Father Earl and Father Mac, the two priests from our church! They were having some sort of statewide priests get-together and they all decided to go to the casino for a night of fun!

Drive through Daiquiri places and gambling priests.....do we know how to have fun in southern Louisiana, or what!

[Tight_rope]

22. LMBAO!!!!!!! Gambling Priests

Now we know where all your tighs are going. Why not just go gamble with the money yourself and you collect the winnings.

LMBAO!!!!!!! Gambling Priests:spank:

[struggle4progress]

13. I think many Texans still buy six packs as company for long drives.

[BadGimp]

2. southerners and their drinking ...

I wish I lived there ;P

[crossroads]

6. Lived in La. all my life...

They did just pass a no open container law... and about time that finally includes passengers! There is a barroom on one corner and at the next corner there is a church in N. O.... guess to pray they don't get killed or kill anyone while driving... always a wreck where alcolol is at fault... sad... N.O. a hard drinking town...
:eyes:

[AlCzervik]

11. Now if they could get the gas station mini marts

to stop selling those singles already iced down it might help.

[crossroads]

16. Good idea...

Bet they make *almost* as much $ on the beer as they do on the gas...
:thumbsup:

[TahitiNut]

9. Well, the death rate of brain cells ...

... explains the way they vote. :eyes: There's a reason it's called "intoxicated."

[PfcHammer]

12. Yup. Nothing like picking up a cold one on the way to the cockfights. n/t

[union_maid]

14. A friend of mine moved to LA a few years ago

She's a Jewish non-drinker from NY. When she met up with acquaintances shopping in the local discount store and carrying a thermos of screwdrivers she just about lost it.

[kayleybeth]

15. I live in a suburb of New Orleans

Until just a few years ago, we had a combination bakery/package liquor store on the main drag in town. Open Sundays, too. Donuts and Vodka... One stop shopping!

[Tight_rope]

21. New Orleans would be a ghost town without alcohol! n/t

[SouthALdem]

18. Lived in Baton Rouge for 2.5 years...

Man I miss those drive thru daquiri shops. It wasn't an open container until you poked your straw in the top.

[grimcity]

19. Drive Through Liquor Stores

In some parishes here in Louisiana, there are drive through liquor stores... they look like barns.

The inner walls are coolers (like you'd see at the store). An employee walks up, takes your order, and shops for you, handing you your goods through your window. After you're done, you pay and drive forward, right back onto the road.

Here's a pic of one I found online:

(There's another wall opposite of this one with more booze)

I pass a couple of these when I travel through the Alexandria/Jonesville/Bossier outskirts.

[Hippo_Tron]

20. I'm from New Orleans, the legal drinking age is 13

Or at least that's what you'd think by the amount of places you can find that either don't card or take very obvious fake IDs. It's kinda nice when you're a teenager. I just wish kids would be smart enough not to drink and drive. If kids would just use designated drivers, call a cab, call their parents, or sleep in their car for all I care, then nobody would complain about underage drinking and the legal drinking age would probably be 18 in most parts of the country.

[gatlingforme]

23. Tulane is the biggest party school around, I went there and

if you think that they will change the laws because "MADD" says it ought to--- think again. I am sure if the ex-state trooper knows all too well teaching at Tulane, there is alot of money to go around for all the well to do kids that go there - enough to make sure that not many laws will effect there "partying" . The Culture in LA is much different than anywhere else. It's a different planet if you ask me.