‘Nothing’ will stop kids from driving drunk

[Police Moderator]

‘Nothing,’ not even tragic post-prom crash, will stop kids from driving drunk
By Margery Eagan
Tuesday, May 19, 2009

We’ve done everything we can.

Kids are still going to drive drunk.

And they’re going to drive drunk after the prom.

Saugus High, like schools all over the country, ran a parent-supervised after-the-prom party. Saugus even bused kids to and from it. In between, the high school says students were tested with Breathalyzers not once, but twice.

boston herald

************************************************

Related story...........

Cops: Driver admitted he drank 10 beers
By Jessica Van Sack
Tuesday, May 19, 2009

A Saugus High School senior allegedly downed 10 beers before fatally striking a 67-year-old pedestrian in a horrific post-prom crash - and admitted at the scene that he “should not have been driving after he had been drinking,” a prosecutor said yesterday.

As his mother hung her head and sobbed, an unemotional Jonathan Caruso, 18, pleaded not guilty in Lynn District Court to motor vehicle homicide and other charges in the tragic crash that killed Carol Marean and seriously injured her daughter, Charlotte, 41, during their ritual Saturday morning dog walk.

Police arrived at about 7:30 a.m. to find Caruso’s smashed Chevy Cavalier with four beers in the trunk, said prosecutor Christina Ronan. A despondent Caruso was lying with his head in Rosa Palomba’s lap. A passenger in the car, Palomba, 18, was screaming, “We killed that person!” according to officer Matthew S. Donahue’s report. Charlotte Marean was “screaming and crying in pain.”

The prosecutor said that when Caruso was asked how many drinks he’d had, he told them he was “celebrating prom and drank 10 beers earlier.” Caruso’s blood-alcohol level was .02 at 9 a.m.,which would have made it .06 at the time of the crash, according to court testimony.

boston herald

Edited to add "Related story".

[gridbug]

And they’re going to drive drunk after the prom.

At least you can fix this one - don't let them go to the prom

[BlackFox]

Sounds like a reason to lower the BAC limit to .06 to me. I'm sure MADD will be all over it.

Is it considered an alcohol related accident, if the BAC is below the limit, even though the driver is underage? What if it were .01 at the time of the accident?

[Justin Thyme]

Is it considered an alcohol related accident, if the BAC is below the limit, even though the driver is underage?

I believe so.

There is more skewing of the statistics.

[gridbug]

For the sake of statistics I think it's called "alcohol related" if they find a beer bottle in the ditch within a block.

[bignana]

Sad story. But teens and even some adults will never listen or learn.

[msp]

what a tragic story. My heart goes out to that family. What is the legal limit/ blood alchohol level?

[Bryan Stone]

"is it considered an alcohol related accident, if the BAC is below the limit"

no,... because there is virtually no such thing as being below the limit. In this pathetically generalized situation you are over the legal limit after one ounce of alcohol within an hour. That means I can have 3 drinks in an hour and I'm legally trashed.


"What if it were .01 at the time of the accident? "

it's damn near not possible to have that low of a BAC


" What is the legal limit/ blood alchohol level? "

doesn't matter,... it's a number that is set to make it impossible to have anything to drink PERIOD and drive legally. Every bar/club/restaurant EVERY SINGLE NIGHT has drunk assess stumbling out,... well according to M.A.D.D. and the law



I expect all the same responses of "tell that to the widow that I,..." or "ask the mom who lost her,..." and all the same typical stuff

.08 is ridiculous,.... you might as well say that it is illegal to have anything to drink at all and drive. At least then it would be easier to define.

How many legally drunk ass "business persons" left AT&T field today?

according to MADD and the ridiculous laws,.... the number is staggering

WE HAVE GOT TO STOP THE M.A.D.D.NESS!!!!

[Police Moderator]

no,... because there is virtually no such thing as being below the limit.

Evidently, some have not attended the courts recently to hear the number of DUI cases dismissed (That means the defendant is found "Innocent" of the charge of DUI). There are many instances in which a person has been pulled over, or involved in a crash, and that person has an odor of an intoxicant on his/her breath, but passes the Field Sobriety Tests and is not charged with DUI.

I would suggest some view the videos of persons who test around 0.08 grams/percent and then decide if you would get in a car driven by one of these persons before you scoff at that presumptive level.

It is not quite as easy to reach a BAC of 0.08 grams/percent. It is quite easy to test 0.01 or 0.02 grams/percent if one consumes enough alcohol to test 0.01 or 0.02 grams/percent.

The DUI sky is not falling as alleged by Mr. Stone.

[Bryan Stone]

like I said,... eliminate the confusion

make it illegal to drive after drinking ANYTHING PERIOD

Then I don't have an argument

[LimitedRecourse]

What, with all the encouragement from many posters on this forum on the joys of drinking and smoking all kinds of illegal substances, I'm surprised there is not a chorus of cheers that these young ones have triumphed over the brain-washing that the stupid police/government have subjected them to. They should be proud they didn't "just say no" and showed the world how much more smarter they were than anyone else.

[Bryan Stone]

I didn't even realize you broke the 10K mark

when was it? like 20 minutes ago

[LimitedRecourse]

Is the fog lifting?