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UK's worst drink driver (Jailed 10 times, "worst menace in the history of British motoring")
The Sun (U.K.) ^ | November 20, 2004 | ANDY RUSSELL

Posted on 11/29/2004 7:57:39 PM PST by Stoat

UK's worst drink driver
By ANDY RUSSELL

 

BRITAIN'S worst drink driver Howard Bloor has just been jailed for the TENTH time.

Bloor, 61, has been boozing and driving since 1968, notching up a staggering 29 convictions.

He was 1½ times over the limit when police stopped him earlier this month after spotting him hanging out of a car window in Manchester.

The painter and decorator, from Eccles, has been banned from the road for 35 years but has repeatedly ignored the disqualifications. He also has 30 convictions for that and 30 for driving with no insurance.

When Bloor was stopped for his latest offence, he told cops he had only drunk iced water.

 


Click picture to enlarge

But on Friday, the widower admitted drink driving, driving while disqualified and driving with no insurance when he appeared before magistrates in Manchester.

Bench chairman Trevor Cunliffe told him: “You are a habitual offender with no apparent understanding or remorse.”

He gave Bloor the maximum jail sentence of six months, plus a three-year ban.

Bloor’s appalling record of driving over the limit, or failing to provide a specimen, makes him the worst drink-drive menace in the history of British motoring.

Last night his latest outrage sparked calls for tougher punishments for serial offenders.Maria Cape, of the Campaign Against Drink Drivers, said: “It is a miracle he has not killed other people, or himself.

“It’s painfully apparent that his series of short sentences have been no deterrent.”

As well as six months in jail, JPs can give drunk drivers fines of up to £5,000, plus bans of a minimum of one year and no upper limit.

Bloor got his first driving ban as a teenager in 1965, and his first drink-drive conviction followed three years later. His total jail sentences now add up to 45 months, plus one suspended term of six months.

Last night his lawyer Keith Dyson said: “He can’t stop himself from leaving cars alone.

“He should have some psychological counselling to break this pattern.”



TOPICS: Local News
KEYWORDS: drunkdrivers; england; greatbritain; uk; unitedkingdom
It's amazing that he hasn't killed anyone yet. Pray for our British friends, that they stay out of his path.
1 posted on 11/29/2004 7:57:41 PM PST by Stoat
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To: All
Sorry, this pic from the original article didn't post correctly:

 

2 posted on 11/29/2004 8:00:05 PM PST by Stoat
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To: Stoat

About par for the revolving door drunk drivers we have here in New Mexico. There is a whole class of attorneys who do nothing but get charges dismissed or delayed so that judges have no choice but to dismiss them. The drivers are seen as victims rather than criminals.


3 posted on 11/29/2004 8:02:09 PM PST by CedarDave (Celebrate November 2, 2004 -- May it always be known as Vietnam Veterans Victory Day!)
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To: CedarDave
About par for the revolving door drunk drivers we have here in New Mexico. There is a whole class of attorneys who do nothing but get charges dismissed or delayed so that judges have no choice but to dismiss them. The drivers are seen as victims rather than criminals.

I feel so sad for the families of their victims, and of the innocents who have been mutilated or killed on the highways.  Such a senseless tragedy, and as you say much of it can be traced back to John Edwards' friends at the Trial Lawyers Association.

4 posted on 11/29/2004 8:04:24 PM PST by Stoat
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To: Stoat

God forbid any girl named Mary Jo take a ride with this Euro Ted Kennedy!


5 posted on 11/29/2004 8:22:13 PM PST by The Spirit Of Allegiance
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To: Stoat

Funny thing about this is, it doesn't seem like he's ever been in an accident, much less hurt anyone.


6 posted on 11/29/2004 9:27:53 PM PST by chaosagent (It's all right to be crazy. Just don't let it drive you nuts.)
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To: Stoat
Quite frankly I'm baffled why drunk driving laws even exist. Drunk driving should be nothing more than a form of reckless driving. If an intoxicated person causes anybody harm through their actions, then that action should be akin to involuntary manslaughter or something similar.

If there are legit and bona fide actuarial statistics that implicate a greater risk to insurers for those who chose to operate motor vehicles while intoxicated, their insurance rates should be commensurate with not the statistical risk of such harm being caused, but by the commensurate liablity posed to the insurer. Driving without insurance should be a no plea-bargainable offense (similiar to possesson of a firearm while committing a crime) punishable by 3 years in jail for the first offense (second offense being 9 years, with a third offense being 36 years incarceration). Furthermore, insurance companies should be law compelled to cover the full brunt of any and all catastrophic claims that may arise as being a carrier for a driver convicted of a drunk driving misdemeanor.

That's where the real harm is incurred (under-insured drivers) by society. I believe the blame should be squarely placed where its deserved. I believe that my thinking is exquisite, in that only those people who lack the skill and ability to drive while intoxicated will get pulled over in the first place.

What greater deterent can there possibly be than knowing that operation of heavy machinery while intoxicated might result death to innocent bystanders (and there already are laws on the books about that), aside from perphaps making driving while intoxicated a capital offense? But even so, as in the case of waking somebody needlessly, the first offense shouldn't be treated as being such a crime. As in the case of needlessly waking somebody, a nice stern warning delivered with a resounding alacrity (whereby the offending party full well knows the ramifications of a repeat offense) should be most often sufficient. If that's insufficient, than why not make stupidity outright illegal?

How many murders are committed annually? How many of those murders are comitted with firearms? Of all those murders, how many are illegal? What's the solution to that problem? Should it be more illegal to murder, or to murder with a firearm, or to murder with an illegal firearm? Consider the odds:

3/5 of all people will be involved in an alchohol related accident.
1:1 ratio of all people during their driving career who will be injured in some accident (provided they wear seatbelts)
1:200 ratio of baby fatality that are alchohol related
16:10 (ratio of alchohol related crash fatalities to firearm deaths)
33 minutes (average period between alchohol related fatalities)
. 3 minutes (average period between alchohol related injuries)

The rate of alchohol traffic fatalities is equivalent to two fully loaded jet-airliners crashing each week.

The foregoing notwithstanding, I sympathize greatly with those who suffer pain and grief as a result of drunken drivers. Such is truly a horrific tragedy and there's nothing I can say or do to ameliorate, assuage or mitigate such pain. A hole in ones heart is just that.

Nevertheless, I believe that when one considers that at least 10% of the drivers on the road at any particular time (in any particular local) are intoxicated, and that this number is at least 50% greater during the period Friday night to Monday morning, and that any arbitrary drunken driver would agree that they've been drunk at a minimum of 2000 times prior to the drunk driving charge - contrasting that with how many fatalities/injuries there are annually - I throw my hands up in exasperation. I do not believe that drunken driving laws are the least bit effective.

7 posted on 11/29/2004 9:46:34 PM PST by raygun (huh...)
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To: Stoat
This guy has nothing on Wu Wuk-Ho

'IT WAS A NIGHTMARE'

By MATTHEW SWEENEY, ERIN CALABRESE and CYNTHIA R. FAGEN

November 29, 2004 -- A tour bus carrying a visiting dance troupe took a wrong turn onto the FDR Drive yesterday and bulldozed into a low-hanging overpass, shearing off part of its roof and injuring 50 passengers — including a 10-year-old boy pinned under twisted metal.

The bus, which is 13 feet high, was heading south just before 2:30 p.m. when it smashed the 9-foot-6 overpass at East 61st Street.....

Witnesses said the front of the roof peeled away like a sardine can. The impact blew out all the windows.

The bus was not supposed to be on the drive, which is off-limits to all commercial vehicles.

But the driver, Wu Wuk-Ho, 56, of Ontario-based Preference Coachlines, told cops that a gas-station attendant told him it was OK to be on it.

He then apparently ignored signs warning of low-hanging overpasses.

"There's a sign around 96th Street warning [tall vehicles] to get off at that location," Fire Chief Thomas Galvin said. "He hit the underpass probably going about 15 to 20 mph.

"You gather from talking to him that he tried to get off, but with the traffic moving so fast, he didn't have time to get off."

The driver was later slapped with five summonses....

8 posted on 11/29/2004 9:51:36 PM PST by Rome2000 (Democrats are perverted socialist crooks)
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To: Stoat

I suppose someone had to take up the slack after Richard Harris died...


9 posted on 11/29/2004 11:22:45 PM PST by Welsh Rabbit
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