Promote your business or product on 700level.com. For
more information about advertising with us CLICK HERE!

Well, Sarge, that's a question for the courts. Thankfully it's not a huge issue (people getting rung up for DUIs when they weren't drunk)

Actually, it's becoming more commonplace than you would think. In Austin, there was a local radio personality (Jeff Ward) who got arrested after seemingly doing fine on any/all sobriety tests. Also, an article in the local paper about the high rate of dismissals due to cops bringing in anyone/everyone even remotely suspected.

"The dismissals come amid what police say is a critical public safety threat, as alcohol contributed to more than half of the city's deadly crashes last year. They said they are trying to combat that trend by aggressively plucking such motorists from the road; on a per capita basis, new drunken driving cases in Travis County roughly doubled those in four other urban counties during the 20-month period.

"But prosecutors and defense lawyers say such efforts have at times led to the arrests of drivers who did not appear intoxicated, costing those drivers hours in jail, thousands of dollars in attorneys fees and the social stigma of a DWI arrest.

"Generally speaking, I think if you have alcohol on your breath in Austin, Texas, you are going to jail," said Brian Roark, an Austin defense lawyer and former county prosecutor.

Prosecutors at the Travis County Attorney's office, which handles most drunken driving cases, said they have seen cases in which arrested motorists did not appear drunk on videotaped sobriety tests and passed an alcohol breath test, leaving the prosecutors only an officer's word that the driver appeared intoxicated. They provided examples of such instances from recent months."

click here

Right, right...I get that. I'm not talking about his public "legacy" so much as his parents getting the stink eye in church or PTA meetings or letters about what a piece of shit he is stuffed in their mailbox or whatever. This is hard enough for them as it is.

right, so was i, and i'm saying that absolutely nothing about ebert's post would change anything about how the public, local or otherwise, would see dunn and subsequently treat his parents.

again - this is a man with 23 moving violations over the past 13 years, including reckless driving, driving w/ suspended license, DUI, etc. he died after posting a picture of himself drinking and then driving at least 130mph when the accident happened. he was a fully grown adult who choose all of these things. so it's ridiculous to claim that ebert's tweet would have any unfair effect on how he is remembered and what his parents have to deal with - except hurt feelings.

Well, I can't attest to the laws in Texas or any other state, but it seems to me that a person who passes a breathalyzer shouldn't be arrested. The entire point of the breathalyzer is to determine whether or not someone is drunk.

In most states up north they give you a field sobriety test if they suspect you're impaired. If those results are inconclusive, they give you a breathalyzer. If you fail the breathalyzer or pass barely and the cop still thinks you seem impaired, they give you a blood test for final confirmation.

The only problems that really arise up here are when you were high instead of drunk. The only way to get off is if you can catch some kind of break via loophole or you get extremely lucky somehow. For example, a friend of mine got off because he refused a blood test and the breathalyzer used on him wasn't properly certified or something. I think it has to be checked for calibration every few months and it was beyond that point.

Still, refusing the blood test resulted in essentially accepting a loss of license for 1 year, but he didn't have to pay any fines or take the DUI rap.

"The skater and stuntman had a blood alcohol level of .196 when he got behind the wheel on Monday"

HE WAS DRUNK. Surprise!
linc

right, so was i, and i'm saying that absolutely nothing about ebert's post would change anything about how the public, local or otherwise, would see dunn and subsequently treat his parents.

Flesh, who learned of Ryan Dunn's existence yesterday, is now the definitive voice on Ryan Dunn, his family, his reputation in the community, and any recourse or pain his family might have to deal with so a movie critic could take a shot at his corpse.

Come on, guy!

People view those who die in accidents differently when they were drunk. Particularly when they kill someone else in the process.

Ryan Dunn apparently has a history of driving like an asshole. We can all assume, I think, that his friend was aware of that and hopefully wasn't taken hostage on this deadly joyride. Tragic. Irresponsible. No doubt.

Now, the flip side of the story...drunk driving jackass kills war veteran in car accident.

You don't think one does more to harm his reputation than the other?

Communities ostracize families for less and I just think it was irresponsible, uncouth, and out of order, particularly since he had no clue if the guy was even drunk.

Further, Ebert fisted Heath Leger lovingly when he swallowed a few bottles of pills and I don't recall him tweeting what pieces of shit his friends, fellow actors, and doctors were for allowing it to happen.

I don't know. I heard about the Ebert tweets at the same time I heard about Ryan Dunn's death and while I don't have strong opinions on either guy, I just thought "Who the fuck does this guy think he is?".

"The skater and stuntman had a blood alcohol level of .196 when he got behind the wheel on Monday"

HE WAS DRUNK. Surprise!
linc

And now is the appropriate time for Ebert's day in the sun. Tweet away! "2 thumbs down for latest jackass stuntlol"

Sorry, he was well over the legal limit, speeding twice as fast as most states speed limits and killed another person in the car with him. I have no remorse for Darwin Award candidates and if I had a vote, this guy would win it this year.

The sad thing is if RE didn't reply to the comments of people bashing his initial tweet about it, and then details came out that the guy in fact was drunk, was speeding and had a history of it and just sat back smugly no one would question him (and he'd look clairvoyant if anything), but the apology makes him look like he was reacting to the news and felt bad about it.

ntf! our entire discussion is moot! good people of west chester, feel free to dirty eyeball the fuck out of the dunn family at church, the PTA...fuck it, run up to their house and throw a bag of shit at the door if you want!

he was drunker than a skunk! can you believe it?

huzzah roger ebert, the all-knowing one!!!!

That is very sad.

And I'm sure this guy had done it many times with no consequences and had an attitude that he could handle driving drunk.

Hell he even faced previous consequences and still did it.

That is an all too common and dangerous attitude

Didn't mention the family or trashing them, your sarcasm is noted, and I didn't say he was all knowing, just that it would have been better from a publicity point for him to keep his responses guarded after the initial one to curb crazy responses.

Most of the time when people twitter crazy shit no one cares until there's a back and forth between crazy and enraged to make it news.

Munch, my anger at the whole thing is the disregard for other people's lives. Would people give a rats ass about the guy's family even a second if he killed someone else driving on the road, minding their own business? I mean, I'm sure some would mark him a hero if he overturned a van with twenty illegals heading off to a death match, but if he killed innocent hardworking Americans on their way to work, or pick up their kids or something because he thought he could handle driving drunk, regardless of the speed or the BAL.

I don't think many people would disagree with you Lyte.


Evidence seems to show that this guy was an alcoholic and blatant disregard for everyone else is a pretty common attitude to have when you are one.

Self centered is a pretty common personality trait for those who suffer from substance abuse.

armchair psychology ftw

Shocking that a jackass who played a jackass on TV died being a total fucking jackass. Society is lucky that he only took one jackass with him (I have no sympathy for the asshole who would get in that asshole's driver's passenger seat)

This guy was rolling the dice on a regular basis, and you can't just blame alcohol. Most sane people who have been drinking and having made the first mistake of driving at least don't make the second, MUCH LARGER mistake of driving one hundred and fucking forty miles per hour.

Fuck that asshole. Thank Science he didn't hit another vehicle.

Didn't mention the family or trashing them, your sarcasm is noted, and I didn't say he was all knowing, just that it would have been better from a publicity point for him to keep his responses guarded after the initial one to curb crazy responses.

lyte, my sarcastic post was totally not in response to you or anyone else (well, f-d a little bit).

And I'm sure this guy had done it many times with no consequences and had an attitude that he could handle driving drunk.

of course he did, sadly, like many of us. munch, it's interesting, because if you read some of the comments by his friends before dunn's BAC level was revealed, they went out of their way to say things like "he wasn't much of a drinker" and "i partied with him for five hours before the accident and he was fine when he got in the car". bullshit.

it was pretty obvious, circumstantially, that he was very likely drunk at the time of the accident. i wonder what the percentage of people with DUI's on their record just happened to be driving drunk the one time they got busted. very, very small, i'm guessing.

the miracle is that he was taken off the road for good before he killed someone innocent. that's probably a real bummer for his friends and family to consider and perhaps in poor taste to tweet, but it's the truth.

i'm guessing there are a few posters here, and their families, who travel the same roads as this guy did. you're lives are now safer, and that's just a cold-hearted fact.

your lives. ugh.

KB if we consider his boozing to be self medication, could it be armchair psychiatry?

havent had a shot to post again since the flurry of posts hit today, including someone's post citing 23 moving violations in this tool's past.

Bam Magera can hate me all he wants, i'll kick his ass- his buddy was a complete knob who, if one can ever be happys someone's 'dead', which is harsh, i'll at least say im glad is off the roads, permanently. Roads that I drive.

Fuck this inconsiderate, ignorant asshole. Better he took himself out and his GF's brother than any innocent person coming home from shift work or whatever.


God Ive never been more squarely in Dino's camp in my life.

it's my camp, motherfucker!

(currently drunk and safely off the roads.)

You're probably in my camp more than you want to admit Seth

Evidence seems to show that this guy was an alcoholic and blatant disregard for everyone else is a pretty common attitude to have when you are one.

munch, we have no idea if this guy was an alcoholic. it's a clinical diagnosis, right? we can surmise that he drove drunk relatively regularly. not necessarily one in the same.

i'm always a bit surprised at your attitude about alcoholics, though. like most other addictions, it's a disease affecting the dopamine feedback loop in the brain. as you no doubt know, rationalization and related altered judgment is a key symptom. i have a lot more sympathy for him if he was an actual alcoholic.

Are you all forgetting that Porsches are made to be driven that fast and you're actually going faster than it feels? Or maybe his speedometer was broken?
Possibly there was glue under the gas pedal, I saw that in a movie once

munch, we have no idea if this guy was an alcoholic. it's a clinical diagnosis, right? we can surmise that he drove drunk relatively regularly. not necessarily one in the same.

There are two psychiatric diagnosis regarding substance abuse.

One is "dependence". The other is binge use. He could easily have fallen into the latter category, particularly if he did this regularly. Both of these require that a person meet certain criteria including inability to function at work or home and exhibiting routinely bad judgment. He seems to have at least demonstrated bad judgment.

I have no idea if he was an alcoholic. Thats why I qualified with "evidence seems to show".

I'm not in the diagnosis business and alcoholic is really a self diagnosis anyway.

I am in recovery and the attitude of blatant disregard for others is a common trait amongst active alcoholics. So much so that overcoming it is the main focus of AA.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 
61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75  76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 
91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 
121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131