Woman Tells 911 on Drunk Driver — Herself! November 21
This woman on a video featured on ABC News deserves both a commendation and a citation.
A 911 dispatcher in Wisconsin received a really interesting call from a woman reporting a drunk driver. There are signs on freeways urging people to call 911 to report drunk drivers that may be sharing the road with them in order to prevent potentially fatal car crashes, and this woman heeded that advice. Only she was not merely sharing the road with a drunk driver; she was the drunk driver.
Mary Strey of Wisconsin reached a dispatcher on Clark Country 911 and said “Somebody’s really drunk driving down Granton Road”. The dispatcher proceeded to ask her which way the drunk driver was going, whether it was towards Granton or towards Neillsville, and she simply responded that the driver was proceeding towards Granton.
It was when the dispatcher asked whether she was following the drunk or if the drunk was behind her when she said, “I am them”; the dispatcher seems to have been caught unaware as he paused for a bit before clarifying what he just heard by asking, “So you want to call in and report that you’re driving drunk?” to which Strey responded, “Yes.”
She was asked by the dispatcher to pull over and wait for police, and she did so. A field sobriety test confirmed that she was, indeed, drunk, and she was eventually arrested for DUI.
It was a good gesture, and created quite an interesting news report – but what would have been better is if she had not gotten behind a wheel in the first place. It was rather good, though, that she seems to have realized her mistake and called in for help. Once you’re drunk and your decision-making abilities are compromised, it can be easy to think that you are well enough to drive home even if you weren’t.
Moral of the story is – if you were to go somewhere where there may be a bit of drinking and you would like to oblige, then make sure that there is someone else who can drive for you. If you know that there’s no one available, then don’t drink at all.
Tags: driving under the influence, drunk driver, drunk driving, dui, DUI arrests