Not really sure how to broach this subject so i’ll just recount the events and perhaps my actual question will formulate itself in the midst of it.
went for dinner last night and had 2 beer over the course of about 2 hours.
went to a friends house afterwards and had two small glasses of red wine over the course of 2-3 hours. so in total, 4 drinks over about 5 hours plus a large meal. wasn’t feeling trashed so i decided it was cool to drive the scootie home from Shida to SongShan safely.
Come barreling out of the underpass on XinYi as I’m sure we all do when we go through tunnels on our bikes. What doth lie straight ahead? a huge check stop. I’m pulled over with one other scootie dude and the cop gets right in my face and asks, in chinese, if i’ve had anything to drink. I tell him one beer because i’m sure he could smell something and I didn’t want to lie in fear it would just cause more problems. he turns my bike off, takes the keys out and grabs hold of my arm and walks me to the police car. on the way there he was asking if it was a small beer or a big beer. I pretended not to understand and stayed calm. they put me in the cop car and pulled out their breathalizer kit. At this point, i know i’m not drunk but would probably fail the breathalizer. They ask me for my id and i’m pointing and telling them it’s in my purse which is in the seat of my bike. when they finally get what i’m saying in english they walk me back to my bike. As im pulling out my ARC and bike registration the 3 of them tell me to leave.
so i guess i’m not really sure what went on… did they just tell me to go cause they could see i wasn’t loaded? why not follow-through with the breathalizer? were they just irritated by the language barrier? I know i could have been in HUGE trouble, but i’m wondering exactly what would have happened? I think a lot of people drive their scooters after a few drinks… i know i do. I’ve never seen a check point before in taipei and it was not small thing either. the cops there weren’t those ones you see hunched over, legs spread on white scooters smoking. they were very big, respectable looking ones like at home on the big bmw motorcyles.
the cop who was walking me back and forth to my bike them a thumb print sized bruise on my arm.
i would have deserved the ticket/fine/whatever cause i did make the choice to drive after drinking throughout the night.
what is the law in taiwan regarding all this? i consider myself very lucky and will be cabbing it even after one drink from now on!
From my limited understanding of the laws here (a Taiwanese friend of mine was nabbed for scooter drinking after meeting me for drinks a few years ago), it depends on how much you are over the limit (for the $ fine) and you will have your license suspended for one year.
So, yes, you were lucky. Drinking and driving is just plain stupid – especially since cabs are so cheap in Taiwan.
4 Drinks 5 hours will may still leave you drunk even if you think it doesn’t. If you really though it was cool why were you worried ?
Most people who have they licence taken away probably thought that “4 drinks over 5 hours” didn’t affect their driving.
Who cares what the exact fine is ? You would have been in big do-do, and maybe killed yourself or someone else.
I think the cops were initially just showing off their “clout”, then realised that the OP was fine, and sensibly dropped the matter.
I find it difficult to believe that a couple of beers and 2 “small” glasses of wine over the course of 5 hours ( with a “large” meal thrown in for good measure) could possibly put anyone over the limit, let alone make them inebriated enough to hurt themselves or anyone else.
I don’t advocate driving drunk, but surely that wasn’t the case here.
Huh?[/quote]Should have read that better before I posted. Should read “4 drinks in 5 hours may still leave you over the limit even if you think it doesn’t.”
I think those 3 milkshakes I had earlier are still affecting me… just proves my point…
Or even “4 drinks in 5 hours will still leave you over the limit.”
your body weight plays a role too…
5hrs is a really long tyme, wid a meal, if u went to da bathroomin between, prob in da all clear…
One of my language exchange partners told me May and June were the months that the local police get observed by their superiors, so that might be why you got caught.
I don’t drive myself, but I’ve noticed a lot of cars and scooters being towed from in front of department stores and banks lately. I’ve also seen a couple of Taiwanese people being stopped around Love River.
Play it safe. 
Good luck!
Did they show you the result of the breathalizer? They have to by law.
If you were over, you would have been arrested on the spot and your scooter would have been taken away to an impound.
If they have reason to believe that you have been drinking, they can escort you to a cop car or even a police station and ask you to do a breath test.
I’m not sure on this, but I think even if the breath test is passed, they can still take you to the police station and give you a blood test should they believe you are under the influence of dring or drugs.
Infact, regarding drink driving, the law is similar to many western countries and thats a very good thing, in my very humble onion…
[quote=“Dangermouse”]Did they show you the result of the breathalizer? They have to by law.
If you were over, you would have been arrested on the spot and your scooter would have been taken away to an impound.
If they have reason to believe that you have been drinking, they can escort you to a cop car or even a police station and ask you to do a breath test.
I’m not sure on this, but I think even if the breath test is passed, they can still take you to the police station and give you a blood test should they believe you are under the influence of dring or drugs.
Infact, regarding drink driving, the law is similar to many western countries and thats a very good thing, in my very humble onion…[/quote]
they never gave me the breathalizer… were about to but when i was taken back to my bike to get my arc and such, they suddenly just told me to go. i’m curious as to why. i know i didn’t feel drunk but i also know i more than likely would have been over the legal limit. i don’t expect special foreigner treatment and would have accepted the consequences… just curious as to why they didn’t follow-through.
I was driving home one night, about 2am, when outta nowhere, a coppa walks straight into my path holding out his (turned-off) light baton.
It had the effect of clothes-lining me, and I’m fortunate I didn’t come off the scooter.
I pulled over immediately and charged up to him, asking him belligerently why he’d pulled such a dumb-ass move.
In English.
He didn’t understand me, but didn’t appreciate me getting up in his face. His partner had pulled his gun by this stage, and had it trained on me.
Took a while for us all to calm down, and they made me call my girlfriend, so they could explain to her (to explain to me) that I was lucky I wasn’t lying in a pool of my own blood.
Dunno who pulled the dumber move - him for clothes-lining me with his baton, or me for charging him…