I had an adventure tonight

"Zibodiz" (zibodiz1) 02/20/2014 at 01:09 • Filed to: None

10

8

I was driving home late from a house call (I'm a TV repairman) at about 7:15pm today, and noticed what looked like a car stuck on the railroad tracks. I immediately whipped my car around a stopped to check if that's really what had happened — sure enough, a 2010 Grand Prix had its left front tire stuck over the first rail.

There was a Ford Expedition parked nearby, with a lady and her kids in it. I ran over and asked if they needed a tow rope (I carry one in my 'scort.) They said that someone was coming with a chain, but I convinced them that it would be good to get the car off the tracks sooner rather than later, so we hooked up the Expedition to the back of his car and pulled him off the tracks.

As soon as we got the cars unhitched, the fella who was driving the car got out and asked us to stick around while he tried again, just in case he got stuck on the second try. Now, the car was about 50' from a crossing, so I thought this was a little odd. I asked him why he needed to cross the tracks, and he explained that "I need to get to Lyman, the guy who owns this car lives there."

Waaaaaaaiiiiitaminute..... Yeah. Not even his car. So he starts to get in the car, and I quickly tell him he should wait, because the deputies were called out for a car stuck on the tracks, and if he left before they got there, they'd be upset. For some reason, I was the only person there through this whole escapade who realized he wasn't sober. I stalled him for a couple minutes waiting for the fuzz, but a Sebring coupe showed up (the one that had gone to fetch a chain), and asked him if he needed a ride home.

He said no, and got in his car — before I could stop him, he took off, and flew across the tracks fast enough to make it. It also happend to be fast enough to cause an instant blowout on his left front tire.

He stopped on the other side of the tracks right behind the Sebring (which for some inexplicable reason had been parked with the engine running and the driver's door wide open), and walked back to thank us for helping him get across the tracks. I told him that he shouldn't try to drive now that he has a blowout, but he insisted it was just fine. He then mumbled something about needing to find something, and walked back to his car — except instead of getting in his car, he gets into the Sebring. I notice and point it out to the lady who showed up in, and she starts to freak. I ran over and found him fumbling with the steering wheel buttons (maybe he thought he had to press cruise control to put the car in gear? no idea, both the Sebring and the Grand Prix are center-console automatics), so I lean into the car across him and say "Here, let me help you with that", and pull the keys from the ignition. I'm not sure if he was trying to steal her car, or if he was just so stoned that he couldn't tell the two cars apart (blasphemy! Okay, they're both sucky models, and were actually marketed to the same market segment, but still...)

As he's getting out of the sebring, an early '00s Silverado shows up and offers him a ride home, which he agrees to. I point out that he needs to stick around for the deputies to show up (by this time it's been a good 15 minutes at least — the response time in rural Nebraska is terrible), so the Silverado takes off. I don't think they wanted to be involved with helping someone run from the cops.

The lady who came in the Sebring was pretty shaken up after seeing her car nearly get stolen, so she also took off. The stoner then went back to his car (bear in mind that I'm trying to keep him chatting this whole time to stall him), and got in. I told him he shouldn't try to drive with the blowout, but he said "well, I'll just pull off the road under that street light", and pointed to a light about 30' away. The lady who drive the Expedition was the only one left besides me at this point, so she and I try to talk him out of moving the car, but he insists... and, of course, instead of pulling up under the street light, he takes off.

At this point, I'm standing a good 100 yards or so from my car, which was left on the other side of the tracks. I kind of wanted to wait for the deputies to show up, but after waiting another minute or so, I decide to follow him. It's a long, straight road with very few turnoffs, and only leads to Lyman, so I knew where he was headed. I took off, expecting to see him in a ditch somewhere along the way, but didn't. I drove about 5 miles, and was just about to give up — I'd even pulled over to turn around — when I thought "Naw, I'll just go to the top of the hill (there's only one hill between Henry, NE and Lyman, NE), if I haven't seen him by then, I'll give up and go home." Well, that was exactly how far I needed to go, because he was at a house at the top of the hill. He had pulled into someone's driveway, knocked on their door, and asked them if the car he was driving belonged to them. The poor man who answered the door was really confused. I got there right as the stoner was getting back in his car, so I asked the man at the house (he's actually an acquaintance of mine, gotta love small communities) to call the police and update them on our location (oh yeah, did I forget to mention? My cell phone was dead. Stupid phone.)

Immediately after I pulled out of his driveway, a couple of Charger squad cars flew around me, and followed the Pontiac into town.

They arrested the guy, and left the car where he had parked it. He had apparently taken it to a house with nobody home, and he wasn't even sure if it was the right house. Who knows if the owner of the car even has a clue where it is.

It was hard to see in the dark, but there didn't appear to be much left of the wheel, and the fender was pretty blackened. Apparently aluminum wheels with blowouts don't last more than about 15 miles at 65mph. Whod'a thunk.

The pictures above are all web finds. They're the right model/year/color, but unfortunately I didn't exactly have time to take pictures of the actual cars involved. So to make up for it, here's a real photo of my 'scort, 'Hezekiah':

And no, I have no idea why I named my car 'Hezekiah'. It just felt right.

Singhjr96 > Zibodiz 02/20/2014 at 01:14

5

Dude I love what you named your car. That's awesome.

PetarVN, GLI Guy, now with stupid power > Zibodiz 02/20/2014 at 01:24

2

This a legidemately cool story!
I wish I had an adventure...

Sir-Loinington > Zibodiz 02/20/2014 at 01:25

1

Bro, that was a cool story. :)

hethoughtofcars > Zibodiz 02/20/2014 at 01:54

1

Thanks for the story, I'm glad it turned out alright and no one was injured. Although someone is going to discover their Grand Prix missing at least a front tire, and I'll hazard it may have some suspension issues.... assuming they can even locate the car at all.

At my previous job I helped refer people convicted of DUIIs to treatment. I've literally read 100s of police reports involving intoxicated drivers. Sadly, this isn't very uncommon. Intoxicated people will do the most incredibly stupid things when driving. I know that's not a shock, but driving into fields, ditches, flipping their SUV on a gentle curve with literally dozens of empty beer cans in the car and claiming that they haven't been drinking to incredulous officers. (These people usually get three or four times over the limit with the breathalyzer. Sometimes you are shocked they even lived with that much alcohol poisoning their system, much less were able to operate a 2 ton machine). One memorable report had a guy getting busted for DUII, bailed out by a friend who inexplicably took him back to the car, and then getting busted for a second DUII all in the same night! Getting stuck on train tracks is actually a new one for me. I'm having difficulty even envisioning this. Obviously you did the right thing in calling the police, and even went well beyond by tracking the guy down.

One thing that initially surprised me when I started reading these reports is how often it is that other drivers, or in some cases, just regular people tip police officers to potential DUIIs. (those that work the late night drive-thru at these fast food joints get plenty of opportunities to call in intoxicated drivers, for instance...) I had always assumed that the cops needed to be around and see someone swerving to pull them over, but many times it is just a regular citizen who sees a car barreling about, barely missing crashing into parked cars who calls 911. Even if you hadn't been able to track down the guy, the police likely would've (they probably could just follow the trail of wreckage from that tire) and he still would have been arrested and tested for substances.

I don't know anything about Nebraska law, but hopefully he'll have to enroll in a program and stay sober for at least six months, listen to people who have had family members killed by drunk drivers, and even from people who spent decades in jail because they killed someone. It will also cost a fortune financially, because he will have to pay for drug and alcohol evaluation fees, program fees, UAs, probation supervision fees, ignition interlock rental fees, court fees, etc, etc. Basically, besides likely having his license suspended, the guy is going to be broke for quite a bit. Hopefully it'll change his life and we'll have one less intoxicated driver on the roads to worry about.

Zibodiz > hethoughtofcars 02/20/2014 at 02:18

0

I actually live in Wyoming (7 miles from the NE border), so I'm not sure what the legal landscape there is like, but I hope you're right. Unfortunately, here in WY it's a very different story. First offenders with no crashes involved (i.e. he got pulled over for swerving, but didn't actually hit anything) just get a single night in jail and a fine. Repeat offenders lose their license and get fined, but that's it. I've even been hit by someone who had lost her license due to a DUI, and all she got was a couple tickets (1 for hitting me, 1 for driving on a suspended license, and 1 for driving without insurance). I've known drunks before who've been arrested many times for DUIs, and all they ever got were triple-digit fines. Of course, things may have changed in the last couple years, but I haven't heard that they have.

And you're absolutely right about the fast food joints finding the drunk drivers. Back when I was a closing-shift drive through order-taker at McD's (I was a teenager, it was the only job available lol) we reported about 5 a week. This is in a town of about 5,000 people. Usually, they'd be openly drinking a bottle as they payed, and we had all kinds of crazy stuff happen. One guy asked me (also a guy) out on a date — while his girlfriend was sitting in the passenger seat (she was pretty mad). Another passed out for about 5 minutes while he was placing his order.

In each case, we just took a few extra minutes to make their sandwiches, and the cops would be waiting for them when they pulled out of the lot. Part of me felt guilty for being a fink, but when you drive drunk/high, you're not just hurting yourself, you're potentially hurting other people, and that's where I draw the line. There were a couple employees at McD's who got mad about us reporting them, though.

hethoughtofcars > Zibodiz 02/20/2014 at 03:19

1

Thankfully the laws are constantly evolving and to my knowledge no politician has lost their job for being too tough on drunk drivers. :)

I live in Oregon, where we do have a similar first time offender law if there was no crash/property damage. However, the person arrested for DUII will still need to complete a treatment program (including 90 days verifiable sobriety —usually it's closer to 180— but 90 is the minimum). They have to pay to go to "education" classes and at least weekly meetings, monthly evaluations, and random UAs (some testing just for drugs, others that can detect if you've consumed alcohol within the last 10 days). Needless to say the day after a holiday, like July 4th, pretty much everyone will get called in for that UA + Alcohol test. They usually have to regularly attend outside meetings such as NA or AA as well, and turn in proof of their attendance. There's even homework for the program they are involved in. If they manage to complete this successfully, the DUII is not considered a conviction on their criminal record. In many instances, the fees from the program and court will have added up to $4-5K. Just as recently as a year or two ago, while I was at my job they passed a new law that if you were even a penny short or minute late with your court fees, it automatically became a conviction.

The people I dealt with had 1 of 3 things happen: 1)They were first time offenders but couldn't complete their rehab program in time, or usually, at all. So a judge withdrew the first time offender program and they were officially convicted of DUII, plus likely any other tickets that the prosecutor had agreed to waive upon completion of the program. Tickets like "Failure to Maintain Lane" and "Reckless Endangerment", 2) They were first time offenders who crashed or caused injury to life or property damage, which carries an automatic conviction, and 3) People on their 2nd or 3rd or 4th, etc.....

Because the people I worked with had been convicted, they were sentenced to a jail sentence that was usually short, but then all those additional penalties like losing their license for at least a year, "renting" their house arrest bracelet, and paying for probation supervision, which could vary from a year to 5 in my experience. When they did get their license back, they would have to have an ignition interlock device installed in their car that required them to blow a 0.00 BAC or the car would not start. And yes, they had to pay for this device too.

I'm definitely a proponent for treatment. In many cases these are people who do not have the power to stop. Their lives, and their families lives, are being ruined by this. So it can be tremendously sad, with family members alienated from each other and children who become caught in the middle. But, unfortunately there is also another statistic I learned: on average a person who is arrested for their first DUII has driven under the influence 83 times before getting caught.

Glad you kids at McDonald's called the cops on people. And yeah, if I was a cop looking for drunk drivers I'd just park in the corner of a Taco Bell parking lot at two am.

feather-throttle-not-hair > Zibodiz 02/20/2014 at 08:25

0

Wow, nice job on tracking him down. People like that should not be on the road.

thebigbossyboss > Zibodiz 02/20/2014 at 08:33

0

Dude good for you, that asshat deserved to get caught! What a fool! You get + 1000 Oppo's