Luck or Law?
 

Went out for a few drinks on Saturday to celebrate a friend's new position at her job. I was the designated driver since I was the one doing the drinking the previous night. My buddy, let's call him John, decided to hit the drinks a tad to hard. John had a rough week and decided he wanted to forget all about it. Nevertheless, during the course of the night someone knocks over a beer and soaks my John's phone. Destroyed it.

1:45 rolls around and I close my tab. Assemble everyone for the walk out into the parking lot to the car. John was the only one that drove by himself. Everyone else was with me. As we were walking the bartender, a mutual friend of ours, and myself were trying to convince him that he shouldn't be doing any driving. Granted, we have all been f'ed up together and have done dumb things with no consequences. Plus, he has a good 100 lbs on me, so I did what I shouldn't of done. I let him leave.

Wake up in the morning and call his phone. Forgot it was soaked and called his brother. Found out that he had gotten a blow out on the way home and had ended up in the ditch. Some good smaritans had pulled his truck out and were helping him put the tire back on. Police rolls up just to make sure everything is fine, they realize my buddy is not sober and take him to the drunk tank.

I finally get in touch with John late in the afternoon on Sunday wondering if he recieved a DUI. Well, it turns out he only got a citation for public intoxication because when the police showed up they could not prove that he was the driver.
He has now gone stone cold sober and when we go out out will just drink soda with me and make sure everyone else has a good time.

Did he get lucky or did the cop just cut him a favor?:confused:

He got lucky.
Real lucky.
On so many levels.

Very, very lucky.

If the cop wanted him in jail, he would be in jail. Don't kid yourself. Glad he's ok and no one got hurt and hopefully he'll remember this for a long time.

Lucky to be alive.

The really lucky ones were the other people on that road that night that your buddy didn't kill.

Yer friend is a dumazz.

sammy nailed it

glad he learned a lesson at no one else's expense

A friend of mine got busted for public intoxication or urination 10 years ago.

He got out of strip club, drove the wrong way back to his hotel and got lost. He got off the highway to pee, turned off the car, took the keys with him and peed behind some bushes. When he was done, he started back towards the car and saw the cops investigating his car on the side of the road. Since he was drunk, they gave him a ticket for public intox. He (and everybody on the road with him) all got very lucky. Kind of a stupid technicality that he didn't get a DUI.

Don't kid yourself, he blew a tire because he was drunk.

100lb difference or not, you let your friend down. I'm glad it worked out for him, but you are both lucky.

Chill dude, there is only one person to blame here, that is the drunk driver.

Luckily nobody got hurt, lesson learned, time to move on.

Right.

A friend of mine back in 84 got a dui while taking a piss at a teller machine just because the keys were in the ignition of the car. At that time that was a loophole in the law. He was about 30 feet from his car , engine off and still got a DWI :p

Yea...no one believes that part of the story either...:rolleyes:

I completely disagree -- friends don't let friends drive drunk. There is no way you will ever convince me that I need to "chill" on that issue. Indeed, I believe it is that kind of attitude that keeps DWI an ongoing issue.

DWI is not a victimless crime more often than it should ever be.

How far are you willing to go with that? Physical restraint? Calling the cops? Posing a "sit-in" in the driver seat? Or anything for that matter that will compromise the friendship?

I'm with '74 here. It's a personal choice(and action) to drive drunk. I'll do as much as I can to prevent a friend from doing something dumb, but when the chips are down, it's not my call.

If he's a friend, then he'll thank you in the end. I'm not afraid to do what's right.

Here's the better question: why wouldn't YOU stop him from committing a crime, and potentially risking his life, the lives of others, and maybe his family and security? A DUI charge could lead to a ton of other stressors, even if there are no accidents or injuries.

Would you stop your friend from firing his handgun in anger at someone? That's a personal choice, too.

I respect people's individual rights to the point where they potentially interfere with the rights of others. If he wishes to endanger himself with absolutely no risk to others, then so be it. But DUI endangers anyone sharing the road with him.

A group of friends could certainly stop it. So could the bouncer at the bar. I'd bet a police officer would stop it, too -- with no charges being laid.

I can't be complacent on this issue. Too near and dear to me, I guess. I hope no one ever has their lives touched by a DUI-caused accident that takes the lives of people they are close to.

Don't get me wrong, I'd do everything I could to stop him/her but I'm not going to have a scenario that goes like this:

Judge: So why did you hit your best friend with a baseball bat again???!!
Me: He was going to drive drunk.
Judge: So you hit him hard enough to break an arm, and gave him a concussion??
Me: Well he is 150lbs heavier than me.

The officer had no way to prove that he was operating a motor vehicle while under the influence....even if he'd been sitting in the drivers seat with keys in ignition...not operating the vehicle... VERY LUCKY!!

This is called Physical Control in the State of Washington and would likely result in a DWI/DUI.

Best,
Tom