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Had an accident with a drunk driver tonight and want to share the story with you guys. First of all the accident was very minor, everyone is all right and there's only a small dent on the car. I'm posting an image from google maps to give you guys an idea of location and situation.
It was snowing today until about 7pm. When the snow almost stopped my wife and I went out to shovel the snow in front of the house and clean the snow off our cars. Then we drove over to our 2nd house, which is just a block and a half away and shoveled that too. Then we went to home depot to get some salt and stopped at the gas station to get some ice cream. Then we headed back home.
I was driving our daughters X1 Westbound on Mermaid Avenue, a two way street. As I was approaching West 35th Street (one way northbound street) a VW SUV was making a right turn from West 35th onto Mermaid Avenue. It was making a really wide right turn, plowing into the oncoming lane where I was. I tried to avoid the guy, be he still hit me in the rear fender, and kept going. I made a U-turn and started to chase the guy down. This whole neighborhood has a lot of police presence (there's a precinct just a few blocks down on West 23 and Mermaid Avenue) and there were two police cars double parked just three blocks down from where the accident occurred - on Mermaid Avenue and West 32nd Street. As I'm chasing the guy down right behind him and honking for him to stop, we both pull by the parked police cars. I open my window and tell the officers that the guy just hit me and is running.
Here's where the bizarre story starts. The cop car starts going after the guy and I follow the cop. The VW turns left onto West 31 Street (one way northbound street). There is some oncoming traffic on Mermaid Avenue, and the cop lets oncoming traffic through before making the left on West 31st. By the time we get onto West 31st, I don't see the guy anymore. As we pull up to the corner of West 31 and Neptune Avenue, I see the WV parked with his lights off and the driver sitting low in the seat. I honk at the cop but he keeps going and makes a left onto Neptune Avenue and just keeps going. I stop and get out to confront the guy in the VW and my wife gets out to try and wave the cop down, but the cop just leaves.
So I approach the VW and confront the driver. The guy gets out of the car starts claiming that he didn't hit me and tries to leave. So I hold him down and tell him he's not going anywhere. I yell to my wife to call 911. Meanwhile the guy, who smells like alcohol and speaks broken English with a heavy Russian accent tries to wrestle himself out. So I put him down into snow and put my knee on the back of his neck and hold him down telling him he isn't going anywhere, while my wife is on the phone with the police. A cop car shows up about twenty minutes later, and the two officers approach us without any kind of sense of emergency and ask me what happened. I told them that there was a hit and run accident and that I'm trying to hold the drunk driver down. The cops ask me for drivers license, insurance and registration and my wife hands the documents to them. They go to their car for a few minutes to take down the information and meanwhile I'm still holding down the drunk. Then they come back, hand me back the papers ask me for my phone number and ask for my wife and I to get into our car and wait. So we do that and they finally approach the drunk. They conversate for a few minutes and go back to their car. The drunk is still sitting in the snow and start to slowly get up and proceeds to his car. At this point my wife grabs her phone and starts taking photos of the VW and it's license plate in case the drunk decides to leave. The cop sees that, approaches us and asks "what the hell are you taking pictures of?" I tell him I'm taking pictures of the VW in case the guy decides to leave. So the cop goes "do you think we are stupid, we took his key away". I say I did not know that, and what if he has another set in the car? Then the cop very rudely asks me what the hell I'm doing driving out in this weather anyway? I point out to him that its only 9pm, I have an AWD vehicle with snow tires and that I went to get salt to put on my sidewalk. The cop goes back to his car and tells us to wait.
Meanwhile a second cop car pulls up and this time it was driven by a higher ranked officer, I believe a lieutenant. This guy was actually very polite and intelligent. Right away he grabbed the drunk out of his car, measured his alcohol level and put him in cuffs. He approached us, asked me for the story again, thanked us for holding the drunk down and getting him off the street. He told me that DA will be calling me tomorrow.
There is a Russian bath house just down Mermaid Avenue and West 37th Street, and its pretty common for people to get drunk over there and drive home drunk. There were many neighborhood complaints and about a year ago a drunk Russian driver fatally struck an elderly gentleman from a nearly nursing home, but apparently still no action from the police. I'm just glad I got this drunk off the road before he caused a major accident.
That's a strange story bro. In Cali, if you have any hint of alcohol, they test you right away and if you fail, they take you to jail. Sounds like the cops you dealt with were incompetent.
That's a strange story bro. In Cali, if you have any hint of alcohol, they test you right away and if you fail, they take you to jail. Sounds like the cops you dealt with were incompetent.
Well, that seems to be one reason why the Lieutenant who responded wears more stripes than the regular cop. He was apparently smarter and more more competent.
Typical case of boozing it up (and overdoing it) on a Saturday night with either ignorance of the law, contempt for it, or both.
Och, glad you and your wife were not hurt and that there is relatively minor damage to the vehicle. You really took a chance, though, restraining the guy, even if he was drunk. First, the guy could have been armed with anything from a pocket-knife to an an Uzi (I hope the police searched his car for weapons), and you and your wife could have been hurt or killed. Second, he could have (falsely) claimed an injury from you holding him down, and tried to make you liable.
Well, that seems to be one reason why the Lieutenant who responded wears more stripes than the regular cop. He was apparently smarter and more more competent.
Typical case of boozing it up (and overdoing it) on a Saturday night with either ignorance of the law, contempt for it, or both.
Och, glad you and your wife were to hurt and that there is relatively minor damage to the vehicle. You really took a chance, though restraining the guy, even if he was drunk. First, the guy could have been armed with anything from a pocket-knife to an an Uzi (I hope the police searched his car for weapons), and you and your wife could have been hurt or killed. Second, he could have (falsely) claimed an injury from you holding him down, and tried to make you liable.
Yes, when Lieutenant arrived he had the car searched and found I believe bottles of alcohol. Luckily there were no weapons involved, but it really pissed me off when the first two cops let the drunk get into his car. If he had a second set of keys, he could have well used his car as a weapon.
I echo what Mike said, very risky for you to pursue like that, you could have been hurt or killed yourself. Catching somebody like that isn't worth dying for.
That's a strange story bro. In Cali, if you have any hint of alcohol, they test you right away and if you fail, they take you to jail. Sounds like the cops you dealt with were incompetent.
Probably just a$$hats.
OP--you are lucky that other driver didn't stab you. Kudos for getting the guy, but in this day and age, you are taking your life into your own hands. I'm pretty sure in the past few months I read a story of some good samaritan that tried to break up a fight and ended up murdered by one of the combatants. You have insurance--it's not worth it.
It was worth the potential risk just to get this drunk off the road. Given the snow conditions and how drunk he was, he could have easily killed somebody if he kept driving.
I don't know that your family would agree if you had been disabled or killed...
He'll be back on the road. Remember dying is easiest on the dead person.
Well he wont be back on the road any soon, I don't think. The cops told me DA will be contacting me, and they took him away in cuffs. Thats means that he is in some serious trouble.
I believe NY law requires DWI offenders to install a breathalyzer device, so he's won't be able to drive if he's drunk... At least not his own car.
One of the officers from last night just stopped by my house. My wife and I are subpoenaed to show up to court next week - I guess we'll be testifying against the guy.
Glad you and fam or ok definitely a risk you took holding him down without a pat down to make sure he had nothing that could cause you bodily harm or worse. Glad he's off the road and hope he gets prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I do find the behaviour of the officers prior to the LT coming on scene pretty odd.
01-07-17, 10:09 PM
Accident with a drunk driver and a bizarre story.
