Don’t drink and drone.
By Alan Bauer
The Sun
Former Gov. Christie left all of us a lot of unforgettable memories — including one on his last day in office. That’s when he banned drunk droning. If you’re caught with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent or above while flying a drone, you can spend six months in jail and be fined $1,000.
Let’s be clear: This is a great law. In fact, lawmakers should expand the measure to prohibit drunk karaoke, drunk social media interaction and responding to work emails while under the influence. All of us would live with far fewer regrets.
Since the Federal Aviation Administration already oversees drone use, we’re guessing there’s at least a strong warning already in place to not toss back a few shots and then grab the controls to a quadcopter with rotors that whir around at thousands of RPMs. But, even with that, apparently some folks haven’t gotten the word — or been able to figure it out all by themselves — that drunk droning is a really bad idea.
The seemingly increasing lack of common sense and awareness is perhaps more disturbing. People — when they’re sober — know consuming massive quantities of alcohol and making good decisions are mutually exclusive. The list of “smart things to do when you are drunk” is short: 1. Stop drinking and 2. Go to sleep.
But they ignore logic. And now we have yet another law designed to stop people from getting drunk and doing yet another stupid thing.
So we might as well make the most of it and do all we can to spread the word drinking and droning is a criminal offense. We implore everyone to update their Facebook status, the state to change the flashing signs on the Turnpike and politicians from both sides of the aisle to make public service announcements that deliver one simple, but powerful, message: Drone sober or cancel your flyover.
