10 Memorable Intersections Between Alcohol and Traffic

Alcohol and traffic are two opposite terms—two parallel lines that should never meet. A driver is not expected to have even a little alcohol while planning to drive; it is unsafe, dangerous, and downright immoral. An intoxicated driver poses a threat to the lives of others aside from himself.

While drunk drivers have taken innocent lives and destroyed properties in the past, this has not stopped people from drinking before driving, even while in traffic. And the end of such is predictable. Many times, when alcohol mixes with traffic matters, the resulting incidents are memorable enough to live on the internet for a long time. These are ten memorable intersections between alcohol and traffic:

Related: 10 Crazy 2022 Headlines Proving “Florida Man” Is a Different Breed

10 Drunk Driver Drove on the Wrong Side of the Road with Confidence

Dorothy Denny of Brendon, Worcestershire, England, decided for one reason or another to label October 4, 2022, “Vodka Day.” She drank for six hours straight, yet she was not satisfied with her level of intoxication. She decided to step things up by driving for 2.5 miles (4 km) to get more alcohol. Due to her state of inebriation, she took the wrong side of the road and drove confidently onward.

A driver by the name of Milani, who realized that Denny was most likely driving under the influence, tried to alert other motorists nearby of a possible collision, but his effort was too little and too late as Denny crashed into an innocent driver who was on the right side of the road. The victim suffered a broken arm as well as bruising and whiplash injuries.

Police got involved after the crash, and a blood test was conducted. It was discovered that Denny had 142 milligrams of alcohol in 100 milligrams of blood, while the legal limit was 80 milligrams (essentially, a 0.14 blood alcohol level, well above the 0.08 legal limit).

Although Denny was remorseful after the incident, it didn’t sway the mind of the police. She was subsequently charged and appeared in court. The victim stated that her injuries had made her temporarily unable to work and had caused her to be disqualified from two weightlifting competitions. Denny was given a 20-month suspended prison sentence and banned from driving for 10 years.^[1]

9 Drunk Man Tried to Order Taco Bell from a Bank Teller

We’ve all likely taken advantage of a drive-thru at least once. I mean, who wants to have to leave their vehicle to just pick up a quick burger or burrito? Drive-thrus have definitely saved us time (but not money). The drive-thru was pioneered in the United States in the 1930s and has since spread to other countries. While the concept behind the creation of the drive-thru is actually a straightforward one, some people have abused it because they drank and drove.

Douglas Francisco is one of them. On a sunny afternoon, he pulled up at a Florida Bank of America drive-thru and attempted to order a burrito, believing he was at a Taco Bell instead. Immediately after he “placed his order,” he fell asleep and had to be woken up by the bank manager. The manager told him he was not in a Taco Bell drive-thru and called the police.

Francisco was in such a deep state of sleep that the manager had to beat on the window several times before he was roused from sleep. Francisco was still sleeping on the steering wheel when deputies arrived at the scene. He was intoxicated and also found in possession of prescription narcotics; he was subsequently arrested for driving under the influence.^[2]

8 Drunk Man Hailed a Police Car Instead of a Taxi

A man in Santa Cruz, California, who had been drinking heavily managed to turn a police officer’s ordinary day into comedic irony. The man had become too inebriated to reason properly but wanted to catch a ride home anyway. Guess what he did? He hopped into a sheriff’s patrol car that was sitting idly on the roadside while the deputy who drove the vehicle was interviewing a cyclist.

Deputy Esther Beckman immediately stopped what she was doing and let the cyclist go. She went back to the patrol vehicle to confront the man, only to find out that he was way too drunk to realize what he was doing. The man gave an address, urging the deputy to hurry up as he was in no mood for small talk. The deputy gave him a ride, of course, but not to the destination he expected. He was driven downtown.

In a similar incident in Northern France, a magistrate who was out with his children managed to get so drunk to the point that he hailed a police car, thinking it was a taxi. He ended up assaulting the officers when they took him to the station rather than taking him home.^[3]

7 Driver Didn’t Realize He Was Driving Without a Tire

On a Saturday night, South Yorkshire Police in the United Kingdom arrested a drunk driver who was found to be incredibly drunk. The driver was driving a beat-up silver car that appeared to lack all the basic amenities, including working headlights. The car was also missing one of its front tires. The driver of the vehicle also did not have a valid driving license. He didn’t even have a fake one.

Expectedly, the vehicle was not licensed to be on the road, and neither did the driver have insurance. To add insult to injury, the man “honestly” did not know that his car was missing a tire. The police officers who arrested him discovered that he was a fugitive who had failed to show up in court for two different previous offenses.

Ironically, the incident in South Yorkshire was not the only instance of a drunk driver driving while missing a tire in the United Kingdom in 2019. A similar occurrence happened in Cheshire in July of that year. In the Cheshire incident, one of the front wheels was completely blown out. The driver was chased by the police before he could be stopped. The driver, in this case, also failed an alcohol test.^[4]

6 Drunk Man Took a Joy Ride on an Excavator

Many people have done stupid things while under the influence of alcohol, but taking a joy ride on an excavator seems to be a little bit unusual for us. On an ordinary day in a city in Illinois, deputies got an extraordinary phone call. On August 21, 2015, 31-year-old David Salinas managed to rig his way into an excavator that was parked in a parking lot. He made his way along Treasure Drive in Oswego, Illinois, leaving damaged phone and cable lines in his wake.

Police Deputies were able to give chase and catch up with him. Salinas gave a bizarre excuse for his actions. He said he was too tired to walk home and needed to catch a ride of any sort. This was why he forced himself into an idle excavator. I guess his argument was not “convincing” enough because he was arrested and taken to jail. He was charged with theft of a motor vehicle, among other charges. Salinas’s actions caused residents of the area to temporarily lose phone and cable service.

A similar incident took place in Florida, this time involving a man who was twice David Salinas’s age. John Kastner was 62 years old when he got into an excavator to indulge in an extravagant joy ride in a Florida scrap yard.^[5]

5 Driver Blamed Hurricane Debby for Failing DUI Test

In Citrus County, Florida, a driver was driving questionably, swerving from one lane to another and generally endangering other road users. Deputies promptly pulled her over and found multiple alcohol containers in her vehicle right in the middle of Hurricane Debby. When the deputies walked up to her, the smell of alcohol was heavy on her breath, so the officers decided to conduct a sobriety test there and then.

The woman was asked to walk a straight line, and she failed woefully despite being given more than enough opportunities to get the test right. Guess what—she had a great excuse for her failure. She blamed it on Hurricane Debby. When she was given the opportunity to submit a breathalyzer test to redeem the situation, she bluntly refused. However, there was no way she could escape the situation as she was found with a suspended driving license.

If the officers believed her story, her suspended driving license would have caused issues on its own. She was arrested and put behind bars. The moral lesson of this story is that you cannot hide under the cover of a hurricane to commit a crime.^[6]

4 Drunk Driver Ordered 200 Chicken Nuggets at a Drive-Thru Window

Kole Olsen of Australia was involved in an incident that he later found bizarre “by his own standards.” He was driving drunk, and like many drunk people, he was oblivious of this fact, only for him to drive to a drive-thru and make a mockery of himself. He tried to order 200 chicken nuggets; however, when he heard that his order could not be fulfilled, he flew into a rage. He drove around the drive-thru four times, each time asking if his nuggets were ready.

When he was told that he would not get his order, he repeatedly threatened to “f**k up” the staff and do substantial damage to the premises. He later settled for hash browns and ate them in his vehicle, but he continued to constitute a nuisance, thereby forcing the McDonald’s employees on duty to call the police. When the police arrived, they found the driver parked behind the wheel and under the influence of excessive alcohol.

The matter was sent to court, where Olsen pleaded guilty to the offense and informed the court that he had previously sought professional help to curb his alcoholism, a fact that helped him secure a lighter sentence. What we find most bizarre about this incident is that Olsen was part of an “Alcoholics Anonymous” group when this incident occurred. Olsen was banned from driving for nine months and fined $1000.^[7]

3 Man Drove onto a Dance Floor in a Revenge Attack

Mohammed Abdul, a 21-year-old clubber, was bored and decided to seek fun at Blake Nightclub in Gravesend, Kent, England. However, he made a major mistake that night. He had one drink too many. In all, he had consumed 15 vodkas and cokes with tequila shots. He also smoked excessively. The alcohol in his system kicked in, and bouncers decided that he was too drunk to be allowed to remain on the premises.

When bouncers moved to eject him, he did warn them of what the consequences would be but no one took him seriously. When Abdul got outside the club, rather than hail a taxi to get home, he decided to seek revenge. He returned to the club in a stolen vehicle and drove straight for the dance floor. His aim was to cause havoc for the “humiliation” he received and also possibly kill the bouncers who ejected him from the premises.

After the crash, ten people were injured and needed emergency medical attention; however, no one died in the incident, owing to the bravery of the door staff who pushed and pulled people out of the way of the oncoming vehicle. Of course, the matter could not be swept under the rug, and Abdul had his day in court, where he was found guilty on two counts of attempted murder and handed two 28-year jail sentences.^[8]

2 Man Found Asleep on the Road Thought He Was at Home

In New Zealand, an extremely drunk man was found in a deep sleep in the middle of the road. The irony here is that the road where the man was found sleeping is quite close to his house. The man was discovered by police at 4:45 a.m. on a Saturday morning. When the police woke him up, he was quite surprised because he believed he was at home.

What is most bizarre about this incident is that the man had gone for some drinks on Friday night, and he deliberately chose a nearby location in order to ensure he didn’t make the local news the following morning. He ended up making the news anyway. The man was lucky that no vehicle ran him over before the police showed up. He was let go with a severe warning that excessive drinking only puts one in danger with little to no benefits attached.

In a similar incident, halfway around the world in Canada, a man was found sleeping in a vehicle at an intersection in Burnaby, and police had to be called to intervene. The man had the key in the ignition but was too drunk to do anything else. The people who called the police initially thought he was unconscious, only to be proven wrong when the police arrived. The man was impaired by alcohol and not by any illness. The man was suspended from driving for 90 days. He appealed the driving suspension and lost.^[9]

1 Man Drives Lawn Mower to Buy Cigarettes to Be “Responsible”

Sometimes, when a person has a reputation for heavy drinking, no matter how good they are, you can expect unusual situations to befall them from time to time. This is the case of a main in the sleepy town of Headingley in Manitoba, Canada. He was well known for his drinking habit. One morning, diligent deputies were patrolling the town around 2:00 a.m. when they spotted the 41-year-old man riding a John Deere lawn mower. He was visibly and unusually drunk, and he had a female passenger on board.

When interrogated, the man did not seem to realize that he had done anything wrong. He rather insisted that he was only being responsible for helping his passenger to a nearby gas station to get cigarettes and also being responsible for not driving a car. The police officers did not buy his “responsible” argument, and he was promptly charged for driving under the influence.

A similar incident also took place in Chesterfield, Virginia, where a completely inebriated man rode a lawn mower to a Richmond-area grocery store to pick up some items. Surprisingly, the man in this case was 62 years old at the time of the incident. Like the previous case mentioned, the man equally insisted he had done nothing wrong. However, the man failed an alcohol test, and he was subsequently arrested for driving under the influence.^[10]