Drunkest Driver Ever?...Let's Hear it for the grrrrrrrrl..

[SoCalDem]

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0110084dui1.html

Drunkest Driver Ever?
Oregon woman nine times over state blood alcohol content limit



JANUARY 10--In what may be the most extreme drunk driving case ever, an Oregon woman was arrested last month with a .72 blood alcohol level--nine times the state's legal limit. Terri Comer, 42, was arrested after she was discovered unconscious in her car, which sheriff's deputies found running and in a snow bank on a highway in Klamath County at 11:30 AM on December 28.

After breaking a car window, rescuers removed the comatose Comer from her Toyota and transported her to a local hospital, where a blood draw revealed the .72 BAC. She was reportedly hospitalized for a day before being released.

snip

Comer is pictured below in a 2006 mug shot snapped after a prior drunk driving arrest. In that case, her BAC was recorded in the relatively minor .3 range.

snip

Comer's .72 edges out what TSG has previously identified as the highest BAC we've ever seen. That fallen record (.69) was held by Willard Ashley III, an Indiana man who was busted in October 2003.

[Catshrink]

1. This may be the most entertaining

the dancing drunken cowboy taking a sobriety test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKI_8_VD_yQ

[Laurier]

30. That is hilarious!

Thanks for sharing.

[XemaSab]

37. Classic

That cop was BOUND AND DETERMINED... :P

[Seabiscuit]

40. ROTFLMAO!!!

"I'm not a dancer... I'm just drunk".

[Junkdrawer]

41. Reno 911???

:shrug:

[alphafemale]

42. Recite the alphabet...backwards?? Z Y X cuse ME!!??

Something about that whole thing says training film or something.

Both of them sounded like they were reciting lines.

[Junkdrawer]

43. It's from Reno 911 (Comedy Central)

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/reno-911-sobriety-test/2955895486

[alphafemale]

44. Now that you mention it....I do recognize her.

Obviously.

[Catshrink]

46. Thanks -- I didn't recognize it.

I've only watched Reno 911 a couple of times.

[hootinholler]

47. ROFLMAO! n/t

[bahrbearian]

2. Lets palster her face on the Internet so we can all

cast the first stone.

[fenriswolf]

4. i dont know about you

but i do not drink and drive and i hate people who do, in fact if I plan to go out and drink I set up a DD. This kinda thing sucks if someone you knew died because of a drunk driver IMHO but thats just me.

[bahrbearian]

10. I don't know about you but I don't drink and drive either.

I don't see the need for posting the picture of someone who has a lot of problems ,so we can what?
We can trash them ,scorn them, they are not Celebrities or Politic ans. So when you make a grave error, or are accused of a felony, will you post a picture of yourself?

[fenriswolf]

14. i am not defending someone who made a stupid mistake

and I am not pointing fingers at all. if you have an issue ask the OP but as far as I am aware a women with a BAC of .7 or whatever is newsworthy and worth discussion as well as any other threads that might come up from this subject. Like such as discussed lower is alcohaulism with women, why people feel compelled to drink and drive, etc. Also I have no sympathy for people who take mind altering substances and decide to get inside a huge metalic movable object that you should only operate when sober. If i ever did that I would gladly post my picture on the net for people to scorn me. Yes scorn me as a person who has no regard for anyone elses life but my own.

[bahrbearian]

15. My Original Post was about the Photo , you reply-ed to that.

[fenriswolf]

16. no but your comment was directed at all of us

when you used the collective "we" and if you do want to get to the nitty gritty what is wrong with heaping scorn on anyone who drinks and drive? can you think up one good excuse for drinking and driving? how about one emergancy scenario that is plausible that would be a good excuse for drinking and driving? would someone ever accidently drink and drive? no matter how you look at it, if you drink and get behind the wheel, you are scum and do not care about other peoples lives period.

[StarryNite]

31. Oh, come on,

that poor woman just needs a hug. :sarcasm:

I have no sympathy for drunk drivers. It's not an accident when somebody drinks and drives.

[geek_sabre]

39. BAC .72???

I think its safe to say she's a celebrity now.

[Hoof Hearted]

6. You can go hold her hand and wash her feet if you want but some of us have lost loved ones to drunks

who choose to get behind the wheel. Some drunks are alcoholics, some not.

I have all compassion and sympathy in the world for alcoholics: until they get behind the wheel.

[bahrbearian]

13. Throw the fiirst stone then.

I must be nice to know you will never kill someone while you are driving.

[Richard Steele]

23. *thud*

nm

[Hoof Hearted]

25. straw man: creating a false scenario and then attacking it.

Do you plant your own hay or have it shipped in?

As for the first stone, somebody already covered that for me.

[Tulum_Moon]

48. At least I know I wont be drunk

if I get into an accident with someone.

[blondeatlast]

38. Shame is woefully UNDERrated.

Having known a serial drunk-driver, I have to applaud plastering her face on the 'net as a heads up to those that might encounter her.

[pansypoo53219]

3. how do we protect other drivers?

maybe life. give her a bottle. she'll be fine.

[depakid]

5. Dodgy BAC readings

a BAC of >4.0 will kill a woman.

[NNN0LHI]

8. I was thinking the same thing

Don't know why.

on

[pitohui]

11. i agree, got to be bogus

they would have found her dead, not unconscious

[Somawas]

19. Not at all.

BAC levels in the range of .35 to .4 are usually fatal. But not always. Plenty of abusive drinking over long periods produces tolerance. I've seen guys as high as .59 who walked inot a hospital on their own hind legs and signed themselves in.

[Somawas]

22. Not at all.

BAC levels in the range of .35 to .4 are usually fatal. But not always. Plenty of abusive drinking over long periods produces tolerance. I've seen guys as high as .59 who walked inot a hospital on their own hind legs and signed themselves in.

[Hoof Hearted]

26. Think about it, if a hospital lab had a result come back incompatible with life

don't you think they'd run it again? I'm sure they did, because usually that result is.

Also, I have to ask why you single out this threshold for women? To my knowledge, although women do metabolize alcohol slightly differently, for the most part the lower number of drinks recommendation is based on the assumption that the woman will have a lower body weight. I could be wrong as hell, but I'd like to hear why.

Just like any other drug, the chronic user of alcohol develops an ever-increasing tolerance level. A level sure to kill a sophomore college student will serve only as moderately intoxicating to a serious alcoholic.

Here a few news items, accounts and incidents of women and men well above your parameter. I'm sure there are many more to be found, but I'm tired.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003672880_webalcohol19m.html

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0205(197206)63%3A2%3C278%3ASRBPBA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070906171408AAdum8I


Sorry, the jstor article apparently has to be cut and pasted or searched. The important point of the article was that a driver was found to be operating a vehicle at a BAC of .57%.

[Laurier]

32. Questionable.

Obtaining results from hospital blood tests takes considerably longer than, for instance, obtaining BAC results from breath tests done at police stations. The hospital results could easily have taken hours to obtain, and the hospital is not in the business of law enforcement so I don't know how accurate it is to suggest that the hospital would have "run it again". The hospital's concern is not with legal standards but with the health of their patient, after all, and I would think that hospitals tend to trust the expertise of their own employees, at least initially, even if the results appear to be extreme. I don't know but it seems to me that they would accept the initial results despite how extreme the BAC reading was, rather than immediately doubt the results.

If the hospital did decide to "run it again", wouldn't they have to obtain a new blood sample for testing? If they did decide to obtain further blood samples for BAC testing hours later, the results would most certainly be much different than those of the blood drawn hours earlier. Maybe they did that, and then did a time comparison to see if the first test and the hypothetical second test were compatible, taking into consideration the passage of time, but there is nothing in the linked story to suggest that this was done.

So, I don't know what to make of this story. The reported results are certainly extreme, and while there is no evidence that the hospital would have or did "run it again" to verify or falsify the initial result, there is also no evidence so far to show that the initial result was wrong. That said, the reported result is so extreme that it begs for more detail, clarification and explicit evidence than has been provided so far. Perhaps the OP or someone else will follow the story and report back when the details become available. That would be great.

[Hoof Hearted]

33. I'm going to have to stop you at your first sentence, or two.

I assume you know that Breathalyzer results are not true blood alcohol readings. Moving on - routine hospital lab results usually do take hours to return but this most certainly would be a STAT order. Furthermore, results well outside expected parameters are usually reported immediately with a proviso (*) that the results will be run again and verified with the same sample whenever possible. If you ever wondered why they needed so much blood for a test? Now you know. It's in case they have reason to doubt the initial return.

The health of the patient is the utmost concern, and accurate readings are necessary for proper treatment. I

[Laurier]

35. Perhaps you should identify which sentences you wish to "stop me at", then

so that we can be on the same page, rather than you just claiming to "stop me" at my "first sentence or two" without explaining what you're talking about. It would be much more useful if you actually explained what you mean.

If you would do so, perhaps we can find some common ground, or not, depending upon what it is that you were trying to say in that regard, and depending upon what it is you were trying to say when you ended your post in the midst of a sentence, and depending upon what it is that your (*) asterisk was referring to, since you did not explain it. (Usually, when one uses an asterisk beside a word, one explains the reference at the end of the post, but you didn't do that, so I have no idea at this point what you're referring to.)

Overall, your post is incongruent and rather odd, so I'm thinking that perhaps you've had a computer or connectivity glitch?

[OzarkDem]

7. Alcoholism among women is a hidden problem

There's much more social stigma attached to it, fewer resources and zero sympathy.

[H2O Man]

21. Good points.

In our area, the services available are the same for male and female. There are the 12-step groups, as well as county services that are open to everyone. The alcohol & drug abuse services work with a similar sized caseload of males and females. Many are court-ordered, others referred by employers, and some are pressured by family members or make the decision on their own.

Two things that stand out are that teenaged males are disproportionately referred, although there are significant numbers of females who engage in high-risk behaviors associated with alcohol/substance abuse. The other thing is that area couny employees are covered for mental health services, including psychiatric hospitalization, and for adas services, but not for rehab. I think that is pretty clear evidence that much of society does not take substance abuse treatment seriously.

[OzarkDem]

24. So much more needs to be spent

on alcohol and drug rehab programs. Its one of those penny-wise, pound foolish things. We pay a much higher price for not dealing with it.

[poisonivy]

45. This would

be a good use of the "sin" taxes that are on many alcohol products. That way you pay for your own help.

[Warpy]

9. Amateur!

We've had drunks walk into the ER in NM with lethal levels of alcohol in their systems and complain that they just don't feel good. It's a tricky business getting those levels down without getting them low enough to kill the poor sap with DTs.

I never saw drunks back in Boston like I see out here. It's a completely different ballgame, and not just because of Indians. Their alcoholism rate isn't any higher than the European rate, they just show serious damage sooner.

My youngest death from alcoholism related cirrhosis was 29 and Irish. I never saw anybody that young die from end stage alcoholic cirrhosis in New England. I've seen a lot of people not much older than she was do it here.

So if you really want to know what a spectacular drunk looks like, visit sunny New Mexico. You won't have to look far to find them, either.

[SoCalDem]

17. We lived in Belen, NM..and had to transit a reservation to get to

Albuquerque.. Almost every vehicle you would see was pretty well bashed up..

[northofdenali]

12. SCD - we've had a few in lockup here that went 2.8 -

AND were driving. Like a woman who had her 18-month old child strapped in a car seat a drove into the river (hard to do with all the protective stuff) in JANUARY at 38 below. A cop saw it and dove in - without HIS protective gear - and saved 'em both. Only place on the river that wasn't completely frozen - drunks luck?

I am not exaggerating - 2.8!! She lived. Baby lived. She is in jail for a long, long, long, long time now.

[Tulum_Moon]

49. No one could survive that

sorry. Numbers must be wrong.

[Kucinich4America]

18. Jesus Christ! What the Hell did the woman drink?

A fifth of Everclear? In 5 minutes??

[rocktivity]

20. She certainly isn't "most people"

A (blood alcohol content) of .10 means that .1% of your bloodstream in composed of alcohol...

# .020 Light to moderate drinkers begin to feel some effects.
# .040 Most people begin to feel relaxed.
# .060 Judgment is somewhat impaired.
# .080 Definite impairment of muscle coordination and driving skills. This is the legal intoxication level in most states (including California).
# .100 Clear deterioration of reaction time and control. This is legally drunk in all states.
# .120 Vomiting usually occurs (unless this level is reached slowly or a person has developed a tolerance to alcohol).
# .150 Balance and movement are impaired. At this BAC. level an equivalent of 1/2 pint of whiskey is circulating in the blood stream.
# .150-.25 Most people begin to experience blackouts
# .300 Many people lose consciousness.
# .400 Most people lose consciousness and some die.
# .450 Breathing stops. This is a fatal dose for most people.
link

Alice Cooper says his BAC was so high he could have stopped drinking for TWO WEEKS and STILL flunked a breathalyzer test!

:beer:
rocknation

[Hoof Hearted]

28. Yeah, she's not most people, she's a professional

Alcohol is like most other drugs. With repeated, steady use (meaning several years of consumption), tolerance is developed. Your chart comes from a university, and it is a good reference for college students.

[LostInAnomie]

27. Man, I've driven WAAAAYYYY drunker than that.

[TankLV]

29. They must've never tested bush* then...

or cheney or any of the other CONVICTED DRUNKS in this regime...

[walldude]

34. .72? That's dead for most people... n/t

[JVS]

36. well they did find her comatose. she was on her way