[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Report a drunk driver? (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 12/16/2010 3:06:17 PM EDT
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Anyone ever done it? What's a surefire way to determine if they are drunk. I was behind a white mini for a few miles. Driver was going consistently ten under the speed limit. Would get to stop signs and then take for ever to turn. Couldn't maintain distance evenly between the yellow and white lane. They would drift to the right and then seem to overcompensate very abruptly when they realized they almost crossed the white. Same happened for the yellow line except they almost hit oncoming traffic a few times. I know I retrospect I should have dialed 911. |
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Quoted: Anyone ever done it? What's a surefire way to determine if they are drunk. I was behind a white mini for a few miles. Driver was going consistently ten under the speed limit. Would get to stop signs and then take for ever to turn. Couldn't maintain distance evenly between the yellow and white lane. They would drift to the right and then seem to overcompensate very abruptly when they realized they almost crossed the white. Same happened for the yellow line except they almost hit oncoming traffic a few times. I know I retrospect I should have dialed 911. You should have. Awesome observation report BTW. Your attention to detail was spot on for a drunktard. |
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Neither you or I are trained in recognizing a drunk. Let the pros. If you have reason to be suspicious and want to drop the dime, do it and let them decide. What if they smell like a fire hazard, can't stand up, and managed to get their car stuck in your yard? Yeah, neighbor did that at my house. I called 911 and had her arrested. A couple of weeks later, she ran into the yard next door and took out their mailbox in the process. 
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I've done it.
Dude rolling down I-5 at 1:30 in the morning using all three lanes at speeds 10-15 MPH UNDER posted or (20 sec's later) 10-15 ABOVE them. Whatever, if you can't keep from straddling the lane markers or spend more than half your time in the rumble strip you need to stop driving for awhile. Might not be "cool" of me but, fuck drunk drivers. |
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Do you call 911 or the non emergency number, I hate wasting their time? For a drunk driver, 911. It definitely qualifies as an emergency, because they're an immediate danger to themselves and others around them. Generally speaking, non-emergency is for things that aren't in-progress, or there's no danger involved, etc. |
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Just report the observed behavior. Don't say "I think they've been drinking" or whatever, unless you KNOW for a fact that they've been drinking alcohol because you witnessed them drinking it.
Fatigue, medications, and certain medical conditions (like diabetes) can also result in dangerously impaired driving that would look no different from drunk driving to the untrained eye. It's worth a 911 call. What you tell them is exactly what the driver is doing, the make/model/color/tag number of the vehicle, the location, and the approximate direction of travel. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Do you call 911 or the non emergency number, I hate wasting their time? For a drunk driver, 911. It definitely qualifies as an emergency, because they're an immediate danger to themselves and others around them. Generally speaking, non-emergency is for things that aren't in-progress, or there's no danger involved, etc. I think you can dial *55 and get the Highway Patrol here. |
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Neither you or I are trained in recognizing a drunk. Let the pros. If you have reason to be suspicious and want to drop the dime, do it and let them decide. You don't need special training to know when a guy is hammered and driving. One time I called 911 on a guy. It was around 3am on the freeway, not too many cars on the road. He was doing 50 in a 65, kept tapping his brakes, swerving like hell, almost side swiped a vehicle that passed him. I called 911. Me. I have a non emergency to report. Im following this guy on the 5 north passing __________ street I think hes drunk, hes swerving, almost side swiped a vehicle. 911. What kind of car is it Me. Its a white honda accord license plate xxxxxx 911. What is your name and what vehicle are you driving. Me. My name is __________ Im driving a _____________ Anyways, about 5 minutes later the CHP came behind me then went around me followed the honda for a few minutes then pulled him over, I went on my way. Gave 911 all my info so they could contact me if need be. I have no tolerance for drunk drivers. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Snitches get stitches In my opinion drunk drivers are some of the lowest forms of scum on the planet. You know it was a drunk vs say a medical marijuana user? Doesn't matter. They could be impaired from alcohol, weed, tussin, prescription drugs, or whatever. If they are impaired they shouldn't be driving. |
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Quoted: Neither you or I are trained in recognizing a drunk. Let the pros. If you have reason to be suspicious and want to drop the dime, do it and let them decide. Maybe so, but I followed a PU truck doing the same thing except he was going a little over the speed limit. He kept crossing the center line and then going over on the shoulder. After following him for ten miles or so and maintaining a safe following distance, he crossed over the center line and hit an oncoming car and the tried to leave the scene. The guy in front of him blocked his forward escape and I blocked him from backing up. Yes he was intoxicated and this was at 6 AM. The other driver was not injured. This was in the days before cell phones so I couldn't call him in, but it was obvious he was drunk. |
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Quoted: No problem. They put everyone at danger because they are too cheap to get a cab or too stupid and think they are good to drive.Quoted: Quoted: Snitches get stitches In my opinion drunk drivers are some of the lowest forms of scum on the planet. You know it was a drunk vs say a medical marijuana user? |
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I have reported a suspicious drunk driver 3 times and know for certain I was correct in at least two of them.
The first time was at 7 am in th morning and as I was coming up on a red light that had just turned green, I noticed a small truck with a flat tire take off as if nothing was wrong. The tire was off of the rim indicating to me that this had been going on for several miles. My first thought was that the guy must not live far away, has said screw it I'm driving on home, and I fully expected him to slowly proceed up the hwy a short distance and turn onto a side rd, driveway, etc. This is not what happened. Within just a few 100ft, he was driving around 50 mph and could hardly keep the truck on the rd. I chose to make the call. To make a long story short, it ended with him driving head on into a concrete bridge. After the truck came to a stop, another guy and myself pulled up to the truck and got out expecting to find a very injured individual. What happened next was the guy got out of his truck while stuffing beer cans into a paper bag and said, "Hey buddy, can you run me up the rd? I just live right over there." He got a state funded ride, but not to his house. The last time I called in a supicious drunk was back this summer. I was driving down a 2 lane hwy when I noticed the car behind me swerving and running oncoming traffic off of the rd. The rd eventually became a 4 lane divided hwy and the erratic woman driver came around me like she was running for her life. I asked the 911 operator if she wanted me to keep up and she stated that yes I should if I could do it safely. I was running 85 in a 55 and still couldn't keep up. All of this came to an end when she rearended an older gentleman sitting at a redlight. I pulled up to the woman's car and she got out asking what happened. The woman appeared ok and I told her to sit back down in her car and I ran on up the rd to where the man's truck had come to a stop. I thought he would be hurt, but the only visible damage I could find was where his head hit the back windshield of his extended cab truck. Yes, the seat was broken. The man looked up at me and said, "what the fuck happened" in a very excited tone. I saw the cop who worked the wreck later and he stated she was on pills of some sort. So YES, report suspicious drunks. |
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Quoted:
Just report the observed behavior. Don't say "I think they've been drinking" or whatever, unless you KNOW for a fact that they've been drinking alcohol because you witnessed them drinking it. Fatigue, medications, and certain medical conditions (like diabetes) can also result in dangerously impaired driving that would look no different from drunk driving to the untrained eye. Medicated driving is "drunk" driving. |
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Skip to the next post if you already heard this one  I realized me must have driven there, the jail is kind of out in the country, so unless he was stumbling home in the pitch dark he drove. I mentioned to the guard who came up what had happened and he had the control center look for the guy on the parking lot cameras. They saw him get into a car and drive away. When I left they told me they had had a patrol car stop him and he was drunk as a skunk. The next morning he came up to me when I was walking into court and started asking me questions about hiring me to represent him in a DWI. "Um, you don't remember me?" "er?" "I was at the jail last night when you were there..." "OH!" "Yeah since I might get subpoenaed to testify against you I don't really think I can help you." "Oh oh, RIGHT RIGHT" |
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Some years ago I was confronted by a VERY aggressive driver. I didn't cut him off,change lanes in front of him or do anything to provoke his behavior.
He told me to pull over and 'he'd kick my ass'......so I did...right up to a pay phone (no cell phones then) and I called 911 and reported a "possibly drunk driver" ,gave them a vehicle description and a partial license plate number and the location.......he was arrested later that night. |
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I have reported ONE drunk driver in my entire life. Only because I saw him side swipe 8 parked cars one after the other as I was behind him going down the street I was living on. If he was not drunk, he was nuts and needed to be stopped :) Other than that one incident, never saw another that I thought might be drunk. |
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http://www.sceneoftheaccident.org/MakeTheCall.aspx
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Neither you or I are trained in recognizing a drunk. Let the pros. If you have reason to be suspicious and want to drop the dime, do it and let them decide. You don't need special training to know when a guy is hammered and driving. One time I called 911 on a guy. It was around 3am on the freeway, not too many cars on the road. He was doing 50 in a 65, kept tapping his brakes, swerving like hell, almost side swiped a vehicle that passed him. I called 911. Me. I have a non emergency to report. Im following this guy on the 5 north passing __________ street I think hes drunk, hes swerving, almost side swiped a vehicle. 911. What kind of car is it Me. Its a white honda accord license plate xxxxxx 911. What is your name and what vehicle are you driving. Me. My name is __________ Im driving a _____________ Anyways, about 5 minutes later the CHP came behind me then went around me followed the honda for a few minutes then pulled him over, I went on my way. Gave 911 all my info so they could contact me if need be. I have no tolerance for drunk drivers. The night I proposed to my wife, we called one in. If you'da seen it, you'da known I did *him* a favor. The MS highway patrol finally got him after about 45 minutes. It was the first Mardi Gras after Katrina, Friday night. My hat is off to everyone involved on that one, and it was a lot of folks from LA to MS. That was a bad fucking night for those cops, we just did what we could. Poor bastard operator had to talk to me to boot, and I was a shitfaced yankee on a shitty cellphone connection in the middle of anarchy
Goddamn, THAT was a night! 
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| I did it once, was coming back form Canyon lake in AZ. There was a guy in front of us using both lanes around every curve. and almost went off the road a few times. When we got back into town, there was one of those DUI check points. The cop waved him through, as it seems they were only checking at random. As I am sitting in traffic waiting my turn I notice the motorcycle cops sitting on their bikes on the side walk. I was at a stop so I yelled at them to check on the burgundy Cadillac that just went though. I told them what he was doing and they took off. When we made it through they had him pulled over, and he was still in the car talking to them. Once we got home, and were watching the news that evening we saw the guy on TV. It turned out that TV crews were there and had caught his sobriety check on tape. It was embarrassing for that guy, he was falling all over the place. Turns out that he was 3 times the limit. |
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<snip> I pulled up to the woman's car and she got out asking what happened. The woman appeared ok and I told her to sit back down in her car and I ran on up the rd to where the man's truck had come to a stop. I thought he would be hurt, but the only visible damage I could find was where his head hit the back windshield of his extended cab truck. Yes, the seat was broken. The man looked up at me and said, "what the fuck happened" in a very excited tone. I saw the cop who worked the wreck later and he stated she was on pills of some sort. So YES, report suspicious drunks. FWIW, heads hitting rear windows have sometimes resulted in partial decapitations or worse. The victim in your scenario got off lucky I think.. |
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Pics of the crash were absolutely horrific, tore the car apart. The guy was trashed out of his mind. Had he been reported maybe the mom and her two sons would be alive today.
http://www.freep.com/article/20101216/NEWS03/101216069/1320/Jury-clears-employer-in-drunk-driving-deaths Weinstein’s lawyer, Frank Guerra IV of San Antonio, had argued that UGS employees knew or should have known that Thomas Wellinger was an alcoholic and was intoxicated on May 3, 2005, when he left the Farmington Hills office headed for an employer-ordered doctor’s appointment. He never got there. Around 3:30 p.m., he plowed his SUV into the rear of Judith Weinstein’s Honda sedan at 70 m.p.h., killing her and her two boys. Tests concluded that his blood alcohol level was four times higher than the legal limit in Michigan. |