Driver Has 18 Times Legal Alcohol Limit

By LIUDAS DAPKUS
Associated Press Writer

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) -- Lithuanian police were so astonished when they pulled over a truck driver and his breathalyzer test registered 18 times the legal alcohol limit, they thought their testing device must be broken. It wasn't.

Police said Tuesday 41-year-old Vidmantas Sungaila registered 7.27 grams per liter of alcohol in his blood repeatedly on different devices when he was pulled over for driving his truck down the center of a two-lane highway 60 miles from the capital, Vilnius on Saturday.

Lithuania's legal limit is 0.4 grams per liter.

"This guy should have been lying dead, but he was still driving. It must be an unofficial national record," Saulius Skvernelis, the director of the national police traffic control service, told the AP. "He was of high spirits and grinning the whole time he was questioned."


Medical experts say anything above 3.5 grams per liter of alcohol in the blood is lethal for most people.

"A person this intoxicated should be in an intensive care unit, not behind the wheel," said Tautvydas Zikaras, head of the dependence illness center in the country's second-largest city, Kaunas. Zikaras said he had never heard or read of someone being so drunk.

Sungaila, who was slapped with a 3,000 litas ($1,110) fine and the loss of his license for up to three years, told police he had been drinking the night before and tried to freshen up by downing a pint of beer for breakfast.

Lithuania has one of the worst road safety records in the European Union. Last year, 760 people died in traffic accidents in this country of 3.5 million residents. Most were alcohol-related.

 

He was drunk.

 

What a loon!

I've drank the oceans dry, but I have NEVER gotten behind the wheel afterward.

 

they should have tested his alcohol blood levels instead of his blood alcohol levels..


thats just nuts

 

That's the best part. I wonder why only a pint? After a night like that I would think you need more to freshen up.

 

holy shite

one strong drink and I'm a bit tipsy, not safe to drive
I can't imagine drinking that much

 

i agree, so many times i see people raving about their alcohol levels, but i work in an ER and having a nice record of guessing patient's EtOH level, people are NEVER as drunk as they belligerently claim...

 

and a lot of people never realize that alcohol levels, no matter what the law states, no matter what any breathalizer says, are relative. completely and entirely. take 2 people who drink the exact same amount and one might metabolize faster than the other, or one might have a super lasic system, i myself have a superb lasic system, so if you were to catch me drunk and had the normal 4 hours to pull a valid legal blood EtOH, and you wait till hour 3... you are SOL!!!