Driver has 18 times legal alcohol limit

[Dread Pirate Robert]

VILNIUS, Lithuania - Lithuanian police were so astonished when they pulled over a truck driver and his breathalyzer test registered 18 times the legal alcohol limit, they thought their testing device must be broken. It wasn't.

 

Police said Tuesday 41-year-old Vidmantas Sungaila registered 7.27 grams per liter of alcohol in his blood repeatedly on different devices when he was pulled over for driving his truck down the center of a two-lane highway 60 miles from the capital, Vilnius on Saturday.

 

Lithuania's legal limit is 0.4 grams per liter.

 

"This guy should have been lying dead, but he was still driving. It must be an unofficial national record," Saulius Skvernelis, the director of the national police traffic control service, told the AP. "He was of high spirits and grinning the whole time he was questioned."

 

Medical experts say anything above 3.5 grams per liter of alcohol in the blood is lethal for most people.

 

"A person this intoxicated should be in an intensive care unit, not behind the wheel," said Tautvydas Zikaras, head of the dependence illness center in the country's second-largest city, Kaunas. Zikaras said he had never heard or read of someone being so drunk.

 

Sungaila, who was slapped with a 3,000 litas ($1,110) fine and the loss of his license for up to three years, told police he had been drinking the night before and tried to freshen up by downing a pint of beer for breakfast.

 

Lithuania has one of the worst road safety records in the

European Union. Last year, 760 people died in traffic accidents in this country of 3.5 million residents. Most were alcohol-related.

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060523/ap_on_...rd_drink_driver

[sullysue]

Oh, my God! Not only should that guy be dead, but it's a miracle he didn't kill anyone else.

[Ancient Ways]

Tests should be run on this guy to determine how he could be conscious after drinking this much.

[Midway Hawker]

Welcome Ancient Ways! Is your world doing fine?

 

[blonde77th]

Thank God he didn't hurt anyone !!

[telegraphcreeklocal]

Please everyone don't drink and drive, thank you! RUSH FANS UNITED!

[nebbish]

QUOTE (telegraphcreeklocal @ May 29 2006, 06:49 AM)

Please everyone don't drink and drive, thank you!

You might spill some

[Dread Pirate Robert]

QUOTE (Ancient Ways @ May 24 2006, 05:01 PM)

Tests should be run on this guy to determine how he could be conscious after drinking this much.

He was just a hardcore alkie.

 

Alcohol is something that individuals can build a remarkable tolerance for, provided they "practice" enough.

 

I have known several police officers personally in my local neck of the woods, who have been astonished at the level that people they have arrested have blown on the breathalyzer in a few incidents. A typical example is some old guy that *maybe* in the estimation of the police officer is over the legal limit, whom the officers in their professional estimation expected *might* or *might not* blow a .10 on the breathalyzer, only to end up blowing a .30 or .35 or .40

 

Alcohol is a substance which varies highly in its affect on the individual, depending on a whole host of factors, one of which is the level of tolerance built up. Some alcohol newbie, who has never drank much in the past (say, for example, a young freshman college student without much prior drinking experience at all) might be weaving all over the road and staggering around on his feet with a .10 reading, whereas some hard core drinking veteran might come across as sober at a .20

Edited May 30, 2006 by Drunk Pirate Robert

[softfilter]

How would you like being in a drinking contest with this guy? !

[Dread Pirate Robert]

QUOTE (softfilter @ May 29 2006, 08:15 PM)

How would you like being in a drinking contest with this guy? !

 

 

I wouldn't -- unless the loser got some neat prizes.