THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW
I knew a woman who stopped for a few drinks every night after work to let traffic die down, then drove home, about a 45 minute drive in lower mainland traffic. She would say, "I'm fine, I've never had an accident and there are never any roadblocks on my route home. It's not like I am some staggering drunk who can't work or function in life."
A few months later a drunk driver hit and killed her 8 year old daughter while she was walking on the side of the road coming home from school. The person who killed her daughter was a successful respected female lawyer who ironically worked with family services on child abuse cases, she'd had had a few drinks at lunch. When she blew into the breathalyser she was just at the legal limit .08.
We gave the woman who was grieving the loss of her daughter a portable breathalyser to take to work and she went and had the usual drinks she would have after work, and she blew .18, more than twice what the lady who killed her daughter had. She never drove after drinking again, but for much different reasons than before her daughter was killed. She now knew the Spirit, or intent of the law which was to keep everyone safe.