Has anyone had experience calling in drunk drivers? I’m asking because of an incident that happened this weekend and is still worrying me. As my mother and I walked to my car at the subway station, two girls who had been noticably drunk in our subway car drove out of the parking lot by:
Driving out of the entrance
Proceeding down a one way entrance lane the wrong way
Weaving everywhere and turning to go onto the highway.
I had my cell phone and a clear view of their license plate but I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t near my car. But, I think I should have done something. What should I have done?
I have called in a few and the police were always appreciative. If those girls you saw had injured or killed someone, how would you have felt? How would they have felt? So in affect you might doing them a favor.
If I am around my hometown area I call the police dispatcher at the general number (as a newspaper editor, I have it memorized) but when I have been away from my home town I call 911 - yes, the potential of injury makes it an emergency.
The dispatcher will probably ask you your name and location and what the indications of drunkeness are and where the driver is. Your name will not be released (at least mine never has) but I know people who don’t give their names and the police still respond.
I have followed up on a couple of calls I made and the police have told me (they don’t usually do that but since I visit them regularly in my professional capacity they share more with me than they should) that they ticketed the individuals and called a family member to drive him home and while the individuals was not happy with the situation, usually their families were.
One guy on whom I called the police because he was all over the road in the late evening (I thought he was drunk) was in fact having a heart attack and the police said my call may have saved his life. Because of privacy rules, the police wouldn’t even give that guy my name to thank me.
Many many moons ago, I ran a gas station, and I often worked nights. Especially on the weekends I saw many things that were a little disturbing. And I frequently called the cops. Drunks, fights, I had a woman come in a 3 in the afternoon, use the bathroom, come back out with some kind of white powder on her upper lip, she was already ranting when she went in there, and was now acting crazier. She got back into her car with 3 kids in the back. She didn’t make it to the light before there were 3 cruisers. I probably called once a night, and that doesn’t include accidents, people stealing gas, or damaging my equipment. That’s a whole 'nother rant about how people will drive away with the gas nozzle still in their car and try to blame the attendant.
I’ve done it twice. The first time was before I had my cell phone. I got the vehicle description and the license plate and called in its last known location once I got home. I doubt the police did anything since too much time had passed.
The second time was on the Interstate. A car was swerving all over the place and nearly collided with a mail truck while trying to pass it. I had a passenger who called 911 on my cell phone while I was driving. A couple of minutes later we passed a state trooper’s car parked in the median. A couple of minutes after that he zoomed past us and pulled the drunk over. I must admit it was very satisfying.
Fortunately I’ve never encountered a drunk driver when I was alone in the car with my cell phone. It would be a bit of a dilemma – I never use my phone while I’m driving since some studies have shown it’s just as dangerous as driving drunk. Is it worth doing something unsafe in order to report someone else doing something unsafe?
I would probably try to find a place to pull over first, then call.
My wife and I were on the interstate when we noticed a car weaving, slowing down and speeding up, and otherwise behaving in a dangerously erratic fashion. Obviously we didn’t and don’t know what’s wrong, but drunkenness was and is the safe assumption.
So we called 911, and we told the operator what was happening. Dispatch of a patrolman was promised, and we hung up and fell back behind the presumed drunk. We had decided to shadow the car until it got pulled over, because (a) something might happen for which assistance would be required, and (b) it was weaving so badly it wasn’t really safe to try to get around it.
Ten minutes later, we were still following it, and no highway patrolman had showed up. When the car swerved into a construction area and killed an orange barrel (it was late at night, so no workers were endangered), we called 911 back. “Yeah, we called this in a while ago, and he’s still on the highway, and he’s getting worse, and where are you?”
Ten minutes after that, we took our exit, and the drunk was still on the road, still weaving.
Not the most reassuring story, I’ll admit, but there you go.
If it happens again, I’ll still call it in, but my expectations will be decidedly muted.
American Maid, can I just ask what your reasoning was for not calling the police? Not trying to be snarky. You saw a person endangering others - why not do something about it? The only thing I can think of is that you were concerned it wasn’t enough of an emergency to call the police. Trust me - emergency operators won’t track you down and arrest you if they don’t deem your situation worthy enough for 911.
BTW, since I see you’re here in Massachusetts - *MSP calls the Mass state police from any cell phone.
I called one in. I was driving home from my GF’s place (a drive I do almost every day) and got caught behind a Firebird driving irratically. I called 911 to ask if they would take a drunk driving call and they said yes. I was able to get a good discription before they turned off. I even asked what would happen if they made it home before the police had a chance to catch them and they said they’d be getting a visit tonight with a warning (I have no idea if they got caught or not).
In college I had a fair number of dinner parties, and everyone pretty much always behaved themselves. But one night, one of my friends (whom I suspected of being an alcoholic anyway) had had too much to drink, and so we suggested that her roommate drive them home.
She couldn’t abide the suggestion, was utterly humiliated, and sat on the couch glaring daggers at me for about fifteen minutes before agreeing to my suggestion. She and her roommate left.
About three minutes later the roommate came back in. Drunkgirl had said, “Can I see the keys a minute? I need to get something from the trunk.” Roommate had stupidly believed her, handed over the keys–at which point drunkgirl hopped in the car and zoomed off.
I didn’t call the cops on her, although I was terrified that she’d crash on her way home and was furious with her for the scoundrel trick.
The most memorable, I don’t know if he was drunk or idiotic. I was driving along at about 7 at night. No one behind me, no one in front of me. Out of nowhere this truck is suddenly barreling down on my ass. I speed up, trying to get some distance between us, as there was no room to pull over and let him by. He backs off a good 200 feet, and then is suddenly right on my bumper again. He begins crossing the center line - especially at the curves. Finally I decided that I needed to call the cops. I was connected to the local police station and told them what was going on, where I was, what direction etc, and a description of the guy’s truck. The cops say they’ll try to see what they can do, and I hang up, not feeling very confident.
A few minutes later we pull up to the main intersection. We both turn right onto a four lane road. He zooms past me. I curse at him under my breath and just hope that he doesn’t kill anyone. Then, a cop, headed in the other direction, pulled a quick U Turn right in front of me and sped off in the same direction as the truck.
Two minutes later, the truck was pulled over on the side of the road, and I was doing my best not to wave cheerfully out the window.