Montanans defend right to drinking while driving

[allthumbs]

By Tomas Alex Tizon

Los Angeles Times

 

HELENA, Mont. — To Andrew Vandaele, the right to drink and drive is as fundamental as the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And if you don't agree, well, nobody's forcing you to stay in Montana.

 

Vandaele, 68, is a retired refrigerator repairman, a lifelong Montanan and self-described "regular guy." He has sipped and steered his entire adult life and says he doesn't plan to change.

 

"I'm driving home from the lake. It's hot. I pop a beer. As long as I'm not drunk, what's wrong with that?" Vandaele says. He's never hurt anybody. There was the night in 1968, coming home from a Christmas party, where he got a DUI, but even then, he says, he was never out of control. At least not that he remembers.

 

He and thousands of like-minded Montanans, including some leading legislators, are a main reason why some drunken-driving laws can't find traction in Big Sky country. Such laws are seen as infringing on the state's live-and-let-live spirit, an attitude one legislator sums up as part of the region's "cowboy culture."

 

Even a leader of the state's Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) chapter, Bill Muhs, who has lived in Montana for two decades, concedes the cultural aspect.

 

"There are still people here who measure distances in six-packs," Muhs says. "Bozeman to Billings is a six-pack drive. Bozeman to Montana City is a two six-pack trip. Crossing the state would be a whole case."

 

The latest collision of law versus culture took place last month when a MADD-supported bill banning open alcohol containers in vehicles was voted down despite vigorous lobbying from Gov. Judy Martz.

 

Federal agencies report that 36 states and Washington, D.C., have laws banning open containers of alcohol in cars, and an additional 11 ban drinking while driving.

 

Montana, Wyoming and Mississippi are the only states left with no federally approved law prohibiting the practice — and, not coincidentally, these states have among the highest numbers of per-capita traffic fatalities involving alcohol.

 

Montana's major cities — Bozeman, Billings, Butte and Helena — each have open-container laws that apply within city limits, and half the state's population lives in these cities. This helps explain why a 1999 survey found that 74 percent of Montana residents believed the state already had such a law.

 

But once you leave the cities, you can open a bottle of any kind of alcohol and drink it while tooling down the highway. And most of Montana's 70,000 miles of paved roads are open highway. With less than a million people living in an area larger than Germany, Montana is one of the most sparsely populated states in the country. Driving is a necessity.

 

Montana was one of the last states to raise the legal drinking age from 18 to 21. Motorcyclists aren't required to wear helmets, and police aren't allowed to stop motorists for not wearing seat belts. For three years in the mid-1990s, Montana had no highway speed limits, allowing motorists to drive as fast as they wanted on the open road (the limit is back down to 70 on freeways).

 

According to national highway statistics, Montana is second only to Mississippi for alcohol-related traffic deaths per 100,000 people. Last year in Montana, nearly 270 people were killed in traffic accidents, and up to 47 percent of those accidents involved alcohol. The national average is 39 percent.

 

State Rep. Jim Shockley, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, made sure the open-container bill did not make it out of his panel for a vote. The Republican from the town of Victor (pop. 400) says many legislators would have voted for the bill merely to be politically correct.

 

A retired Marine and the only lawyer in his hometown, Shockley is depicted by MADD officials as one of the Wild West characters who defends the culture of drinking. The 58-year-old legislator doesn't mind the characterization.

 

Like many Montanans, he's an avid outdoorsman. He hunts, hikes and rides his mules.

 

But rough-and-tough living is what Montana is all about, he says. For someone to tell him it's wrong, after a day of hunting or hiking in the hot sun, to pop open a beer in his pickup — "Well, that's just too much," he says. It's nobody else's business.

 

"People say it's (drinking) part of the culture, and I think it is," Shockley says. "As long as you're sober, I don't see the problem. It's not the government's role to tell us what our culture is. The government should reflect the culture, not the other way around."

 

Hiccup

 

[AlpineK]

I remember visiting a friend up in a little town near Libby back a while ago. He took me to the local bar in town for some drinks. We got a couple ta-go drinks when we left. When we got back to his house we fired up his snowcat and did some loops on his property driving over little pine trees.

 

I don't remember if it was later that evening or the next night when we blew up a couple sticks of dynamite in his yard.

 

Good times

[specialed]

As a 6-year-long Montana resident I have to say, this article is pretty much spot on. Drinking and driving is good fun if all you've got to worry about hitting is a couple cows and a tractor or two. And fuck Judy Martz, that church lady looking bitch is worthless.

[Ursa_Eagle]

a leader of the state's Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) chapter, Bill Muhs

 

Mothers? Bill?

[Fejas]

You have to worry about hitting Antelope and Deer more than anything... Wyoming is the same way... liquore stores have drive through windows and in Pinedale there is a bar with one, you don't ever have to get out of your rige to get a cocktail...

[specialed]

Road kill is a legitimate source of meat.

[allthumbs]

anybody wanna buy a house on puget sound?

[cj001f]

Open containers are legal in Virginia too (the only time I've ever seen people fight not to drive!)

[Fejas]

A buddy of mine moves to Southern Cali.... He comes home for the weekend one time and brings this girl with him... needless to say, shes dumber than a stump.... We convince her that its legal to drink and drive in Oregon, cause we always drink beer when on woodland road trips... So he stays for another week, and she drives back to Cali early... on the way home she is drinkin' beer goin' down I-5, and gets pulled over and yells at the cop for givin' open container, DUII, Speeding, and no seat belt... she argues with him that it is legal in Oregon because we had told her so... Funkin' dumb ass anyway...

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

trask said:

anybody wanna buy a house on puget sound?

 

Is the Trask Leather Love Room and wet bar staying, or are you taking it with?

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

"Half past 5 I'm in the pub

Six O'clock it's home for grub

Eight O'clock it's back to the bar

Fuck the walk I'll drive my car

RIGHT!

 

Knock it back

and have another one

Drinking and driving is so much fun

 

In the motor off you go

Not too fast and not too slow

Keep your head and keep your cool

Must avoid that rightful pull

 

Knock it back

and have another one

Drinking and driving is so much fun

 

As you meander down the road

Don't forget your highway code

See the spot and take your pick

Out of the car to be sick (BLEAH!)

 

Knock it back

and have another one

Drinking and driving is so much fun"

 

[rr666]

ahhhh, I love Montana...

[Anna]

That article reminded me of my father who cracks a PBR every time he hops in his truck! You forgot to mention the law about legally shooting someone if they trespass on your property and the fact that you get to wear guns out in the open in the bars! They didn't have a speeding limit in the state for a while but now they enforce one. A MT native and UM graduate myself....oh Montana how I miss you!

[specialed]

Go Griz.

[MtnGoat]

"It's not the government's role to tell us what our culture is. The government should reflect the culture, not the other way around."

 

Good to see at least a few people have it right.