by Reason of Sanity Read Online Free
Author: Gene Grossman
my hat on. All it covers is the accident itself, with nothing mentioned about the vehicle theft. I guess that’s in another report, which I also expect to be coming soon. The only item interesting in the report is the driver’s blood alcohol level percentage, which was 0.19.
For many years the legal blood-alcohol percentage limit for driving was 0.10, but organizations like MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) finally got it lowered to 0.08. Because of my experience with drunk driving defense cases, I know that depending on body mass and tolerance, the average person reacts differently to various alcohol blood levels. At the legal limit of 0.08, your reflexes are at least slightly impaired. This I know for a fact because not too long ago, after just two beers at the Chinese restaurant, I almost caused an accident while pulling out of the parking lot. That taught me a valuable lesson, so I don’t drink anymore if I intend to drive within two hours.
In California, if you’re brought to the police station as a drunk driving suspect, you’re given three types of test to choose from to determine the percentage of alcohol in your system: blood, breath or urine. Bartenders usually advise their customers to opt for the urine test, because that requires an extra hour for the police to take you to a local hospital for the test. They’re wrong… the extra hour doesn’t help that much, because if you’re drunk enough to be stopped and brought to the station for testing, an extra hour isn’t nearly enough time to allow your percentage level to go down enough towards the legal limit.
At the old legal limit of 0.10, a guy who’s not too bulky might be a little wobbly on his feet and probably fail the FST: that’s the touch-your-nose, stand balanced one leg, and walk-a-straight-line Field Sobriety Test that cops make you take when you get stopped for being a suspected drunk driver.
Levels between 0.15 and 0.20 will usually make one’s speech slur and the driver will obviously appear under the influence, even to an inexperienced observer.
Once you hit 0.20, the official designation is “shit-faced’ and with that much booze in your system, an average person will most probably have slurred speech and difficulty pronouncing any word with more than two syllables.
Anything over 0.25 will usually result in wet pants and a terrible body odor. Readings over 0.30 can cause special conditions like unconsciousness or death.
In Vinnie’s case, the guy ‘blew’ a 0.19 at th e station. This may have been as much as an hour after the accident, so he probably was at the 0.20 level or higher at the time he interrupted Vinnie’s pit stop, and that is definitely drunk, no matter how much body mass or alcohol tolerance you’ve got.
I call county jail to see if there’s any chance of getting to interview him, but they tell me he never got there because Fradkin Bail Bonds took him out of the West Los Angeles Division jail and his sponsor picked him up. I call the bail bond place but they won’t reveal the name of the sponsor, the person putting up the bail.
The County of Los Angeles owns all of the waterfront property in Marina del Rey and they lease out large parcels for people to build apartment buildings and boat slips. This evening there’s a fireworks celebration in the Marina, being put on by the new buyer of a large leased anchorage and apartment parcel. He obviously can afford it because his family makes about a million every day, selling oil to the U.S.
At about nine PM, some surprising events take place. First, the fireworks start. They’re on the other side of the Marina, so I can’t see them from our boat, but the sounds are quite loud. Suddenly I’m being pinned to the couch by a heavy weight against my chest. At first I think I might be suffering a heart attack, but when I look down I see that the fireworks have obviously frightened the Saint Bernard, so he decided to jump up into the safety of my lap, where he
For many years the legal blood-alcohol percentage limit for driving was 0.10, but organizations like MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) finally got it lowered to 0.08. Because of my experience with drunk driving defense cases, I know that depending on body mass and tolerance, the average person reacts differently to various alcohol blood levels. At the legal limit of 0.08, your reflexes are at least slightly impaired. This I know for a fact because not too long ago, after just two beers at the Chinese restaurant, I almost caused an accident while pulling out of the parking lot. That taught me a valuable lesson, so I don’t drink anymore if I intend to drive within two hours.
In California, if you’re brought to the police station as a drunk driving suspect, you’re given three types of test to choose from to determine the percentage of alcohol in your system: blood, breath or urine. Bartenders usually advise their customers to opt for the urine test, because that requires an extra hour for the police to take you to a local hospital for the test. They’re wrong… the extra hour doesn’t help that much, because if you’re drunk enough to be stopped and brought to the station for testing, an extra hour isn’t nearly enough time to allow your percentage level to go down enough towards the legal limit.
At the old legal limit of 0.10, a guy who’s not too bulky might be a little wobbly on his feet and probably fail the FST: that’s the touch-your-nose, stand balanced one leg, and walk-a-straight-line Field Sobriety Test that cops make you take when you get stopped for being a suspected drunk driver.
Levels between 0.15 and 0.20 will usually make one’s speech slur and the driver will obviously appear under the influence, even to an inexperienced observer.
Once you hit 0.20, the official designation is “shit-faced’ and with that much booze in your system, an average person will most probably have slurred speech and difficulty pronouncing any word with more than two syllables.
Anything over 0.25 will usually result in wet pants and a terrible body odor. Readings over 0.30 can cause special conditions like unconsciousness or death.
In Vinnie’s case, the guy ‘blew’ a 0.19 at th e station. This may have been as much as an hour after the accident, so he probably was at the 0.20 level or higher at the time he interrupted Vinnie’s pit stop, and that is definitely drunk, no matter how much body mass or alcohol tolerance you’ve got.
I call county jail to see if there’s any chance of getting to interview him, but they tell me he never got there because Fradkin Bail Bonds took him out of the West Los Angeles Division jail and his sponsor picked him up. I call the bail bond place but they won’t reveal the name of the sponsor, the person putting up the bail.
The County of Los Angeles owns all of the waterfront property in Marina del Rey and they lease out large parcels for people to build apartment buildings and boat slips. This evening there’s a fireworks celebration in the Marina, being put on by the new buyer of a large leased anchorage and apartment parcel. He obviously can afford it because his family makes about a million every day, selling oil to the U.S.
At about nine PM, some surprising events take place. First, the fireworks start. They’re on the other side of the Marina, so I can’t see them from our boat, but the sounds are quite loud. Suddenly I’m being pinned to the couch by a heavy weight against my chest. At first I think I might be suffering a heart attack, but when I look down I see that the fireworks have obviously frightened the Saint Bernard, so he decided to jump up into the safety of my lap, where he
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