I bet this guy posted on here....

[thelizzy]

What is the name of your state? PA

Breath Test Indicates DUI Defendant Appeared In Court Drunk

POSTED: 10:45 am EDT August 4, 2004

UNIONTOWN, Pa. -- Dressed in a sport coat and tie, a man appeared ready to fight a drunken driving charge, but there was a problem -- he was apparently drunk in court.

A judge stopped a hearing Tuesday and ordered 42-year-old Michael Hanczyk, of Bethel Park, to take a field sobriety test in a courtroom after he and others apparently smelled alcohol on Hanczyk's breath and suspected he had been drinking.

A breath test indicated that Hanczyk had a blood-alcohol content more than three times the state's legal limit.

Hanczyk's attorney, Daniel Hargrove, did not return a phone call for comment Tuesday night.

The hearing was being held on Hanczyk's motion seeking to throw out a drunken driving charge stemming from a July 2003 accident in Henry Clay Township, near the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border.

Police claim Hanczyk was driving drunk and suddenly stopped his car setting off a chain-reaction wreck with two other vehicles behind him. Two state troopers who went to the wreck reported that they smelled alcohol on Hanczyk. State police said a blood test showed he was drunk.

But Hanczyk filed a motion to have the charge dismissed, claiming police conducted an illegal search.

Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press.

 

[meerkat3232]

Charge all involved

Here we have yet another shining example of an alcohol-related crash caused also by the sober people. The chain reaction is the result of the sober people following too closely. All people need to anticipate a sudden stop of the vehicle in front of them at any time, for any reason, and need to allow room between the vehicles to compensate. While Mr. H should probably not have been driving, and certainly contributed to the accident, the other drivers should be charged equally with reckless driving, following to closely, and should have to pay the same outrageous insurance rates, and suffer the same license loss penalties as Mr. H undoubtedly will.

 

[CdwJava]

Yes, yes, yes ... and you KNOW what happened by ONE SENTENCE in a news report (and the media is notorious for getting the facts wrong). And if the other drivers contributed to the collision, then their driving statuses and liability will be dealt with as they would be in any other similar crash in PA.

And Mr. H. - if he was drunk - should NOT have been driving! There is no "probably" about it.

Carl