Drunk Driver

We were coming home when Michael pointed out a black car ahead of us swerving all over the road. "We've got a drunk". We've come across drunks before and called their license plate in, but experience has taught me that highway vehicles that are called in are too hard for CHP to find and arrest.

He was like a moth to a flame...following closely behind the car ahead. When he was in a lane he would drift across lanes and then correct, drift onto the shoulder and back again. He was all over the road. He'd make unsignaled lane changes weaving around cars. I've seen people do this before, but never drunk. The drunks I've come across usually are going a bit slower and exercising caution. I said to Michael, "He's going to kill somebody".

We got close to get a license plate, but it must have been a new car because he had the dealer paper plates still on.

As we approached our exit to take care of mom's new dog Dixie, Michael noticed that our drunk exited right in front of us. He turned right, crossed the double yellow line and went into oncoming traffic. Fortunately there were no cars coming from the other direction. We followed him as he pulled into the Shell station. We watched as he then sat at pump #1 for at least 3 minutes before getting out. That gave Michael enough time to call the PD with a description of both the vehicle and the driver. The man went into the store and we waited.

One officer arrived before the man came out. When the man came out the officer pulled up behind his car and approached him. Another officer arrived and the second officer started doing sobriety tests. Unfortunately he was behind the pump so I couldn't see what was going on. Then the man walked out to where I could see him, fulfilling the officers request to walk a straight line. He was hard pressed to comply. Actually seeing him walk was rather frightening considering he had just been behind the wheel.

The first officer got a brethalizer kit out of his car. It seemed weird that he kept blowing into it and they kept asking him to do it again and again. Michael could tell that he was playing games by not putting his mouth around it or not really blowing. There was a red light on the machine that glowed when he blew and went up a few bars on one blow in particular, but I couldn't really tell what to look for.

The officers had him turn around and cuffed him up and then put him in the back of the police car. I felt really glad and relieved he was off the road!

The second officer came over to talk to us and told us that this was not the first time he'd been caught driving drunk. OH REALLY!!!

Maybe the judge will wise up and suspend his license.