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Impaired Driving
Have you ever been to court cause of a call that you were on involving an impaired driver?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Fireyladd - Retired Chief Sharp on
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Yes, I witnessed a idiot who was drunk an ran into several cars. I went to court to testify against him.
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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I managed to avoid court for one. Police took a statement from me and the driver pleaded guilty. I still think he should have gone down for more than 9.5 years...
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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
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Nope, that isn't my call whether they were or weren't....My job is to get them safely out of the vehicle, packaged and off to the hospital as safely and quickly as I can without either me or my crew getting hurt in the process...now I know we might get called to attest to the situation or what we saw or what might have been said but it isn't our job to investigate or to make judgements...thats the LEO's domain and I prefer to leave it that way
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Ralph....that was you who blew the whistle on me....? I was just out for a walk getting some fresh air.....thought I would stop by the ATM to get some cash for an ice cream cone.....LOL... (Not really) Have a good one Bud.....Keep cool..................Paul
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Permalink Reply by FF Nick on
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Not for DUI's, but the county is starting to subpoena local FD's for meth lab fires we've responded to.
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Ralph...Many a "drunk driver" has turned out to be diabetic...and It's not my authority to make the call....I can handle medical and I can handle extrication....someone else makes the DUI or DWI call
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Nick...Are you a Chemist...? Do you have the training and equipment to show its Meth...? I would testify if subpoena'd...I would say "Yes your Honor...I Responded to a reported fire and this is what I saw...Sir, I saw what appeared to me as a lab of somekind and it was on fire." If asked for the nature or type of fire I would politely refer Him to the Cause and Origin team or the Fire Investigator that worked the case. If asked about Chemicals on scene I could answer "Yes Sir, there were Chemicals and if I read the labels tell him what was written on the labels(remeber if they were not sealed then anything could actually be in them)...This keeps Me and the Department out of a slander/libel lawsuit in the future...you can only testify to what you KNOW is true....
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I didn't read the OP as meaning that we had made the decision about someone being impared, just about having to attend court. Can you not be called simply because you were there? We can. And if we are called then all we do is give facts as we know them, nothing about declaring a person to have been drunk.
The 'drunk' side of things is easy here anyway - every driver involved in an MVA undergoes a preliminary breath test. The law requires it. Any person taken to hospital after an MVA undergoes a full blood test, which of course covers those who are unable to subbmit a breath test. Once again it's the law. So with those things in mind, it's easy, we just state what we saw.
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Nick, perhaps you needed to say what sort of statement you would be asked to give. Just to keep things clear.
With the incident I mentioned above, I just gave a statement about what I saw and heard. Things like the driver having said he wasn't the driver, that it had been a friend, yet his feet were under the pedals and he was still wearing the seatbelt. (We still had to search the area around the crash of course, to make sure.)
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