Posted on 05/23/2006 11:10:39 AM PDT by ketelone
Driver Has 18 Times Legal Alcohol Limit By LIUDAS DAPKUS, Associated Press Writer Tue May 23, 8:42 AM ET
VILNIUS, Lithuania - Lithuanian police were so astonished when they pulled over a truck driver and his breathalyzer test registered 18 times the legal alcohol limit, they thought their testing device must be broken. It wasn't.
Police said Tuesday 41-year-old Vidmantas Sungaila registered 7.27 grams per liter of alcohol in his blood repeatedly on different devices when he was pulled over for driving his truck down the center of a two-lane highway 60 miles from the capital, Vilnius on Saturday.
Lithuania's legal limit is 0.4 grams per liter.
"This guy should have been lying dead, but he was still driving. It must be an unofficial national record," Saulius Skvernelis, the director of the national police traffic control service, told the AP. "He was of high spirits and grinning the whole time he was questioned."
Medical experts say anything above 3.5 grams per liter of alcohol in the blood is lethal for most people.
"A person this intoxicated should be in an intensive care unit, not behind the wheel," said Tautvydas Zikaras, head of the dependence illness center in the country's second-largest city, Kaunas. Zikaras said he had never heard or read of someone being so drunk.
Sungaila, who was slapped with a 3,000 litas ($1,110) fine and the loss of his license for up to three years, told police he had been drinking the night before and tried to freshen up by downing a pint of beer for breakfast.
Lithuania has one of the worst road safety records in the European Union. Last year, 760 people died in traffic accidents in this country of 3.5 million residents. Most were alcohol-related.
"What would he say? Why, he'd call me a sissy !!"
anybody know what BAC that translates to?
If that guy tried to blow out a match, he'd become a blowtorch!
is it .727? I think it is.
And you guys wonder where I've been? Now you know !
Countdown to first Kennedy reference...
1.5 proof
Does that make his BAC 0.727%?
Last December there was this guy
A breath test showed high blood alcohol level, but police officers thought the result was inaccurate, because the man was conscious and talked with them, said Col. Angel Rangelov, head of police in Plovdiv.
Laboratory analysis of five subsequent blood samples taken the same day confirmed that the man had had a 0.914 blood alcohol content, Rangelov said. An 0.55 blood-alcohol level is usually considered as life-threatening.
"41-year-old Vidmantas Sungaila . . . ."
. . . cousin of the infamous Kennedy clan, . . . .
I wonder, is "Vidmantas Sungaila" Lithuanian for Magic Man? This could explain his mysterious absence. ;)
is this the same guy who had 70,000 beer cans in his condo?
anybody know what BAC that translates to?""
Blood Alcohol Content
anybody know what BAC that translates to?""
Blood Alcohol Content
A liter of water weighs 1000 grams. The Lithuanian limit of 0.4 grams of alcohol per liter would therefore be approximately equal to a limit of .04% Blood Alcohol Content (granting that blood and water don't weigh the same, but close enough). So their limit is about half what ours is. And the driver had a BAC of somewhere around 0.727%.
If my metric conversions are off, I'm sure someone will correct me.
He ought to be made an honorary Kennedy.
Ping, sir.
blood stream 86 proof.
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