Did I do the right thing? Called 911 on a drunk driver

[TheAxeman]

This afternoon, Michelle and I were coming home from a happy time at a local festival and a Dodge Caravan pulled out in front of me on a pretty busy country back road. After about a minute of following the vehicle it became shockingly evident that the person was either drunk, drugged, sleeping, or texting because they began weaving back and forth across the road, barely missing telephone poles and trees. I'm truly not an alarmist but this person was going to kill herself or, worse yet, kill someone else so I called 911 to let them know I was behind an erratic driver. About 2 miles prior, I had passed a LEO on the side of the road with radar so I figured it would only take a minute or two for him to pull her over.

I continued to follow the driver and she barely missed a bicyclist and almost had a head on with another driver and then, she pulled over.....IN FRONT OF A LIQUOR STORE!!! She went inside and I pulled over also. Now it was about 5 minutes since I had called the cops. I told Michelle I wasn't going to leave until the cops arrived and I certainly wasn't going to let the woman leave again. I call the cops again, now with her license plate number and her location and told them to step on it. No show.

The girl comes out of the store, nearly falling down and bouncing off her car.
Before she shuts her door I went up to her, introduced myself, told her that she is way to impaired to drive and would she please leave her car and let me call a relative or a cab to pick her up. She was pretty, maybe 22 years old, someones daughter, someones mother by the baby seat in the back. I told her to think of her parents and her baby if she wasn't going to think about herself. I told her I had called the cops and that they were on their way and that if she pulled in to the parking lot, got out of her car, and gave me her keys there was a good chance to minimize the trouble she was going to be in.....She was obviously concerned and appeared to agree with me but then took off again. I figured at that point, I had done what I possibly could and I only hope that tomorrow I don't read about someones child being dead because of this irresponsible putz....And as far as the cops are concerned all I can say is that I'm glad I wasn't in a fight for my life because I would be dead by now.

I am no angel, and am the first to admit that I did some really stupid shit when I was her age and had a DWI a long time ago myself but I always listened to reason if someone intervened and those were different times. Michelle is an EMT and ambulance driver and just to see the fear on her face when she thought about having to mop up this woman when she hit a pole was nerve wracking.

I just hope that I did the right thing. Maybe, like me, an arrest might be a wake up call and make her quit.....Please don't drink and drive. I know what it means to lose a child. Its not something any parent should ever have to experience.

[drz rider]

Great job by you Axeman, poor job by LEO. I beleive you did the right thing!

[Tunger]

You did the right thing. I've done the same, having been a paramedic I've patched up too many people as the result of dui's. There are going to be some who chime in and tell you to mind your own business, but I say kudos. You may have saved someone's life. I know I did some stupid stuff as a kid as well, looking back I wish I hadn't and thank god I didn't hurt anyone.

[boostedgt]

you did the right thing. someone who appears to be drunk could also be having a medical emergency. either way they are a danger to themselves and others. I'm suprised the chick drove away, not that i drink and drive, but if i did and someone confronted me like that saying they called the cops i would have walked away, screw getting behind the wheel again

[neonnblack]

Yep i'd have done it to. And youre probably right tung, someone will say that until this lady kills their spouse/kid/family member.

[canuckian]

You definitely did the right thing. Good on ya

[jcbrew]

Definitely you did the right thing, too bad the police didn't.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by canuckian

You definitely did the right thing. Good on ya

x100. Somebody; perhaps several somebodies, owe you their life. It'll be on the "big board" when you get where it is

[gatewaysysop]

Some people can't be saved, least of all from themselves. It's all you can do to delay the inevitable to the best of your ability, which it seems like you did, but a lot of times you can't stop them from ending up where they were going in the first place.

[Hephaestus29]

Yes, even if they were just texting I almost had a girl run me off the road one morning that was texting. I was right beside her laying on the horn & she just kept on texting. If I didn't have to be a school I would hav efollowed her & called the cops or smashed out her windows i'm not sure which but she needed to learn a lesson one way or another. I could have been killed. & you or someone else could have been killed.

[colt zantop]

wow! I wonder if it is illegal to pull behind someone like that so they CANT leave the parking lot. with all the stupid laws nowdays...you probably would get in more trouble than her LOL.....

[STClurker]

Originally Posted by colt zantop

wow! I wonder if it is illegal to pull behind someone like that so they CANT leave the parking lot. with all the stupid laws nowdays...you probably would get in more trouble than her LOL.....

depending on what I'm driving and who's with me, I may not care about how legal it is. they would be blocked in.

"gee, sorry my car stalled, I'll move in a min...now where did those keys go )

I've only called in one dui, and the PD had him stopped before the made it through the next town.

[TheAxeman]

I thought about trying to block her but she was parked on the street with nothing behind her and nothing in front of her. In retrospect, I should have probably pulled her keys that I am sure she had left in the ignition and thrown them on the floor of the car.

Years ago, a friend of mine decided he was going to drive home after having way to much so I jacked up his truck about an inch and put some jack stands underneath. He got in the truck and a had a good "drive" home. It wasn't until he was sober that he realized it wasn't a transmission problem.

[where2]

Driving my merry self to work one morning on the interstate, after the SUV left his lane for the third time, I caught up enough to give the LEO dispatcher the plate number and dropped back to avoid the parts if he clipped someone. Local LEO picked him up before the next exit, and I was thankful for it. Guy was doing anywhere from 45mph to 85mph in a 70mph zone.

[TruckTech915]

You did the right thing! I called in on a drunk man one evening. I saw him leaving the bar I had been at earlier. He was completely plastered and actually fell in the parking lot on the way to his truck. I followed him for about 15 miles, all while on the phone with the police. He almost ran a tanker off the road before they finally caught him, and pulled him over.

[jlckmj]

YUP, you did the right thing, don't loose a second of sleep over it.

Jim

[willymakeit]

You did right. I was a first responder last night at a wreck. Drunk driver hit a guard rail coming at me head on at about 70/80. No lights either. He then rolled 3/4 times. Had a puncture wound to his wrist. Not a arterial bleed,but lots of blood. Lost a good shirt wrapping his hand. He got a free ride to jail. Anybody that he would have hit would have died.

[ZRX61]

When seconds count, the Police are just minutes away...

[rlitman]

Originally Posted by ZRX61

When seconds count, the Police are just minutes away...

Years ago I made a call like this, and the dispatcher pretty much blew me off, saying there was nothing they could do about it. Man was I peeved.

In the first few months of this year, there were over a dozen drunk drivers in wrong-way accidents on divided highways around here. When that made the papers, the police have become a little more receptive to these kinds of calls.

[johno]

Originally Posted by ZRX61

When seconds count, the Police are just minutes away...

Now thats funny.