I just don’t understand drinking and driving

Forums: Drinking And Driving, Dui, Manslaughter, Thom Swift, Barry Lancaster
Email this Topic • Print this Page

So we found out tonight that someone we know was arrested Friday night for DUI/Manslaughter and leaving the scene. He’s an acquaintance of ours, we only knew him from parties or other social functions. Not close friends, although he lives about six blocks from us and he was a close friend with good friends of ours.

He had a few cocktails, drove home and hit a man on a bicycle, killing him. He then left the scene but after getting home called the police. I heard this through a few friends of mine today. They were all feeling sorry for him, saying what a nice person he is and how tragic this is for him. I agreed he was a nice person but nobody seemed to mention the poor guy on the bicycle.

In this town you don’t have to drive after a few cocktails, you can take a cab for ten dollars, or fifty cents on the trolley that runs across the city. I know after a few cocktails you don’t think of these things but if you’re planning on going out and have a few why not take a cab in the first place? That way you have no choice but to find other means of getting home other then driving.

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 43 • Views: 155,766 • Replies: 3,349

@jcboy,

Weird that they think it's tragic for the guy who killed someone. I never understand that perspective.

You're right - take a cab or transit or have a sober friend drive you home. There is no good reason to drive after drinking.

2 Replies

@ehBeth,

Quote:

Weird that they think it's tragic for the guy who killed someone. I never understand that perspective.

That’s what I said today to one friend and he didn't like what I had to say.

He just may have ruined his life over a few drinks and driving but at least he’s alive, unlike the poor guy on the bike.

0 Replies

@ehBeth,

I drove home after a work cocktail, limeade and absolute alcohol, early seventies.
Not far, glad to get there.

Never again. That's a long time ago now. I didn't stop driving at night myself (eyes) until the late eighties, when diagnosed, but never after that experience in early 70's with alcohol in my blood. Back then, main streets were well lit. But I stopped, re side streets.

So, never mind me, what about the drivers I was with?

0 Replies

@jcboy,

Quote:

He had a few cocktails, drove home and hit a man on a bicycle, killing him. He then left the scene but after getting home called the police. I heard this through a few friends of mine today. They were all feeling sorry for him, saying what a nice person he is and how tragic this is for him. I agreed he was a nice person but nobody seemed to mention the poor guy on the bicycle.

I'm also surprised that their sympathy was for him & not for his unfortunate cyclist victim, who had the very bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time ....
Especially since he apparently fled the scene of the accident & didn't attempt to offer any assistance to the cyclist.
I'd have no sympathy at all for someone who acted in such a callous & selfish manner.

0 Replies

It's truly tragic that it sometimes takes this kind of a fatal encounter to open a person's eyes to what they're doing, what kind of insane risk they're taking, when they get behind the wheel after having had "a few." I was lucky. Perhaps blessed is a bettter word than lucky. I got bagged on a DUI citation, not having hit anyone or anything, just erratic driving. This was after dark and I had been putting them away most of the day. It's a blessing I was stopped because I don't know whom I might have hit further up the road if allowed to continue on. It was -- believe it or not -- my first and only DUI arrest at the ripe old age of 56. I'd been driving drunk for the previous 40 years (much of the time). The arrest and citation had a salubrious effect: I don't touch the stuff any more. I've learned that I can have a swell time without relying on alcohol to provide the lubrication.

0 Replies

They were all saying the guy he hit was a homeless person, which really upset me. He just may have been homeless but he was still a person and didn’t deserved to be killed by a drunk driver.

2 Replies

I also had a friend who hit a kid on a bicycle in broad daylight. Long time ago so that I don't remember, but she rarely if ever tasted a drink. She went into therapy for years after. Kid ok, but then I don't know that either, psychologically.

0 Replies

The fact he left the scene is a good proof that he knew he was in the wrong.

1 Reply

@jcboy,

So they're rating the people they can kill? that's disgusting

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

That’s what I thought and that really upset me. They kept saying what a nice and sweet person he is and how much trouble he is in and all they would say about the poor guy was that he was a homeless person.

I found Thom on the internet from bay news nine.

http://www.baynews9.com/article/news/2011/december/361634/Police:-Bicyclist-killed-in-hit-and-run-crash-in-St.-Pete

0 Replies

I can't begin to know what went on, but it just might have not been the driver's fault. I assume it is too, but I don't know and neither do all of you doing the piling on.

1 Reply

@jcboy,

What, being homeless puts you in a separate category somehow? Diminshes your humanity? As ehBeth said, that's a truly disgusting notion. Just, fyi, I've been homeless. I didn't realize that meant it was open season on me at the time.

0 Replies

@edgarblythe,

No, it isn't. Stupid, but not proof.

0 Replies

@ossobuco,

Leaving the scene of the accident is a criminal offence all by itself.

Most people won't drive away after hitting a dog or cat. Leaving the scene after you've known you've hit a human (which he apparently admitted to the police) is below low.

2 Replies

@ehBeth,

Yeh, we all agree on that. But leaving in such a situation is a human tendency, and I don't take it as automatic guilt. Very well may be, but not by definition.

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

ossobuco wrote:

Yeh, we all agree on that. But leaving in such a situation is a human tendency, and I don't take it as automatic guilt. Very well may be, but not by definition.

True, and he will not get any credit for turning himself in. In this case he should not be charged with leaving the scene as it made no difference, this is the state charging because it can, not because it should.

5 Replies

@hawkeye10,

aargh, you're agreeing with me, erk, I don't agree with the rest of your take, still watching.

0 Replies

@jcboy,

jcboy wrote:

So we found out tonight that someone we know was arrested Friday night for DUI/Manslaughter and leaving the scene. He’s an acquaintance of ours, we only knew him from parties or other social functions. Not close friends, although he lives about six blocks from us and he was a close friend with good friends of ours.

He had a few cocktails, drove home and hit a man on a bicycle, killing him. He then left the scene but after getting home called the police. I heard this through a few friends of mine today. They were all feeling sorry for him, saying what a nice person he is and how tragic this is for him. I agreed he was a nice person but nobody seemed to mention the poor guy on the bicycle.

In this town you don’t have to drive after a few cocktails, you can take a cab for ten dollars, or fifty cents on the trolley that runs across the city. I know after a few cocktails you don’t think of these things but if you’re planning on going out and have a few why not take a cab in the first place? That way you have no choice but to find other means of getting home other then driving.

That is good advice.
That can save a lot of trouble.

David

0 Replies

@hawkeye10,

Quote:

ST. PETERSBURG — A man has been charged with DUI manslaughter in a hit-and-run crash early Friday that killed a 47-year-old bicyclist.

Barry Lancaster was riding his bike eastbound along the 2200 block of Fifth Avenue N about 2:15 a.m. when he was struck by a 2010 Acura traveling in the same direction, according to police reports. Lancaster was thrown onto the windshield and landed in the roadway.

The driver, Thom Brian Swift, 44, failed to stop to help, police say. Swift continued to his home at 2017 Dartmouth Ave. N, where he later told police he knew he was involved in a crash, with what he thought was a pedestrian, and fled the scene.

Lancaster, who was believed to be homeless, died shortly after the crash at Bayfront Medical Center.

Swift was arrested and charged with manslaughter while driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident involving death.

He was being held at the Pinellas County Jail Friday night in lieu of $120,000 bail

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/man-killed-in-st-petersburg-hit-and-run/1207582

The part about him calling the cops has been left out, if true this would be so normal as the "journalists" tend to cooperate with the state in vilifying the accused. Publishing his name and address is more of the same.

1 Reply

I just don’t understand drinking and driving

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know