Skip to main content

Very under the influence

When a doctor crashed his car in the UK recently police were quickly at the scene of the incident and breathalysed the driver. He was found to have a blood alcohol count three times that of the permitted level. He explained that immediately after the crash he crawled from his wrecked BMW, opened a bottle of vodka he had with him and drank from this in a bid to steady his nerves. However this explanation was not believed in court as the man had been drinking the night before and was thought to still have
December 18, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

When a doctor crashed his car in the UK recently police were quickly at the scene of the incident and breathalysed the driver. He was found to have a blood alcohol count three times that of the permitted level. He explained that immediately after the crash he crawled from his wrecked BMW, opened a bottle of vodka he had with him and drank from this in a bid to steady his nerves. However this explanation was not believed in court as the man had been drinking the night before and was thought to still have alcohol in his system. He was banned from driving for 25 months and also fined heavily. Meanwhile in the US state of Florida, a drunk-driver crashed his car into a police vehicle at an intersection. The police vehicle was then shoved forward into another, resulting in damage to all three cars. Unusually, one of the police vehicles damaged in the incident was specifically intended to heighten the dangers of drink-driving. Both police vehicles were displaying flashing lights at the time, so how he managed not to see them is unclear. The man was found to be heavily intoxicated and charged accordingly and the incident occurred during the ‘Pirate Fest’ celebrations taking place that weekend. It is not clear which pirate character he was hoping to emulate. There were no injuries in the incident and the drunk-driver was taken to the nearest police station in one of the two slightly bent police vehicles.

Related Content

  • Road user subscriptions will fund the road ecosystems of the future says ERF Lab
    December 14, 2018
    The highway of the future will not be a physical asset created and maintained by the construction industry … it will increasingly be seen as part of an emerging global services sector. “Every day we hear about Mobility as a Service (MaaS), but what about Roads as a Service?” says Christophe Nicodème, general director of the European Union Road Federation (ERF). “The role of the road is changing. We need to think much more carefully about planning (highway) infrastructure in terms of people’s needs. We must
  • Lobby harder and louder if you want better roads says UK transport politician Christopher Chope at PPRS Paris 2015
    February 24, 2015
    A huge leap in highway investment, more privately-run toll motorways and a stronger road industry lobby would all be welcomed by Christopher Chope, chairman of the UK’s highway maintenance all-party parliamentary group. Speaking exclusively to World Highways at the PPRS Paris 2015 pavement preservation and recycling summit, Chope said “yes, I would very much like to have a lot more capital investment in the roads sector. There are still too many pinch points out there … where one motorway meets another for
  • Belgium’s safer roads see casualty reduction
    September 21, 2018
    Belgium is benefiting from a much-needed gain in road safety. The country has had the worst record for road safety of any Western European nation for some years but now appears to be addressing the issue with positive results being achieved. Road deaths for the first six months of 2018 dropped by 14% to 191 compared with 221 for the same period in the previous year. The number of injuries arising from road crashes dropped 1.7% to 23,458 for the first six months of 2018, compared with 23,865 for the same
  • Re-hearsal
    July 17, 2012
    An Australian woman became highly concerned as she drove through the streets of Sydney late one night because she was being pursued by a hearse whose driver repeatedly sounded the horn and shouted. Following an emergency call, police stopped the hearse driver, who was found to be intoxicated. The hearse driver's lawyer later explained that the man was a binge drinker making a cry for help.