A word about drunk driving
I don’t want to sound like a weekend safety briefing, but our buddy, Blanka, an Iraq veteran, pictured above, was struck by an apparently drunk driver the other day. I love Blanka like a sister, so it’s one of the countless things weighing on my mind these last few days, but she sends this message to you from her hospital bed;
I had been walking back to my hotel after visiting a friend in Jersey City, NJ. The last thing I remember was trying to cross the street. An hour later, I woke up underneath a parked car, lost and delirious. After calling several friends, I was able to remember who I came with to Jersey. I called him and asked him to take me back to the hotel, not realizing the seriousness of the situation.
The next morning, I could barely breathe. I was taken by ambulance to the hospital. Final verdict: concussion, whiplash, fractured left ankle, fractured left fibula, broken left radial bone, fractured spine, severely bruised hip and rib cage. I underwent surgery the following Tuesday and will be wrapped up in casts and a wheelchair for several months. I just wanted to warn people of the dangers of drunk driving. I’m guilty of it myself, and learned my lesson after crashing my car into a tree. In this incident, the driver was not found, but the injuries amounted to the verdict of being hit by a car that was in all probability driven by someone severely intoxicated and unwilling to take the charges. Hope you can help me spread the word.
I know Blanka, a frequent visitor and commenter here, will be OK when all of this ends for her. And I know most of you are smart enough to not drink and drive, but think of Blanka, if you’re ever tempted.
Category: Who knows
Best wishes for a complete recovery, lass. Get well soon.
Ditto what Hondo said.
If she needs anything Jonn, you have my e-mail address.
Just ask.
Dear God….woke up under the car? and the driver gone? Lucky to be alive. Here’s wishing her a speedy recovery.
That is a scary story. Saying a prayer for a successful recovery. OMG. Scary.
I have been run off the road by drunk drivers too many times to even try it.
She is VERY lucky to be alive if she was hit that hard.
I wish her a very speedy and good recovery.
Here’s hoping for a full and speedy recovery!!!
One of my biggest pet peeves is drinking and driving. I have lost friends to it and I have had friends spend some time in the jug for it. It’s never worth it. Same with texting and driving.
Oh, man, this is terrible. Blinka, I have already said a prayer for your speedy and complete recovery. You’re the best, kiddo, and we need you back here. But do try to follow doctor’s orders–when you feel well enough to resist them!
OT, I’d be willing to bet that since they haven’t found the driver she was thrown after she was hit and landed under a parked car and the drunk speed off.
I would also like to wish her a speedy recovery.
Well, I may have typo-ed your screen name Blanka, but the Good Lord knows who I had in my prayer. Just the same, I’m sending another.
I hope you have a speedy and full recovery Blanka!!
I have been hit by a drunk driver, forunately for me it was in a car and my injuries were not all that severe (busted nose, and dislocated thumb, along with other bumps and bruises). There was no getting away for him either, as his little S-10 pick up looked as if it had driven into a brick wall not just my Monte Carlo…. damn I miss that car. Firefighters opened the passengers door of his truck and a 12 pack of empties rolled onto the pavement.
One of the most satisfying aspects of my previous job was taking drunk drivers off the road. Everytime I hooked one up, I felt like I had saved someone’s life. Too many times I had to deal with the aftermath of DUI, tending to the injured and notifying next of kin of the deceased. Drunk driving is a scourge of our society.
That’s terrible! I hope Blanka fully recovers. Thank goodness there was apparently no head trauma.
What gets me is the MFer left her there. Who does that?
@14, chances are they woke up the next day wondering where the dent came from.
@14.
Phildo.
I wish her a speedy recovery.
Absolutely no excuse for it, and doubly so when another human being gets hurt.
I hope the fucker that did it rots in hell, after he/she is caught and rots here on earth.
Blanka, best wishes for a speedy recovery, lass.
Echoe what Sparky said – could not have put it better.
Saw an episode of “Top Gear” in which the actor Ryan Reynolds mentions getting hit similarly – he decided to walk home after a night of partying and was himself hit by a drunk driver. (He wonders if the driver describes it as getting hit by a drunk pedestrian?) His list of injuries was similar – that’s a lot of busted stuff.
Best wishes and a speedy recovery!
Drunk driving – particularly where it leads to the injury or death of anyone else – needs to carry an automatic death penalty.
Jonn: IMO two types of “individual” execute a hit-and-run on a pedestrian. The first, as rb325th stated, is someone so drunk/stoned they don’t realize what’s happening. The second type is a total sh!tbag a$$hole.
Either way, they need to be nailed – hard.
If there is anyone here who drinks alcohol regularly, is over, oh, 35, and has never driven under the influence, step right up and identify yourself. I am not including the younger folks b/c I’m guessing that in their lifetime they have heard so many anti-DWI/DUI messages, some might just be smart enough to abstain. I distinctly recall Fort Campbell’s problem in 1973/74. There were so many GIs killing themselves in DWIs that a makeshift cemetery was erected inside the main gate. For each death, a “tombstone” was installed, marking the date and number. The cemetery was very crowded.
Speedy recovery, Blanka! Here’s praying that you recover quickly, with as few complications as is possible (OK, well, better than what is simply possible!), AND that the scum responsible discover just how unforgiving the justice system can sometimes be.
Tell ya what, speaking of drinking/driving on base, every NPS class, the command would haul some guy’s car (or what was left of it) and dump it in the middle of Rickover Circle just in time for the comp/class grad week.
It was a sobering reminder, that’s for sure.
Well, if the driver of the car who hit Blanka was so drunk he drove on, at some point he had to ‘come to’ and acknowledge to himself what happened. Perhaps it was when he came to, went to his car and saw the damage. I don’t know–but at some point the truth came to him. Then what did he do? Hid the car in a garage? Say he struck a deer and called his insurance company? My point is that the type of person who does what he did is nothing but a slug, a POS, drunk or sober.
#21 (Raising hand). That’s right. Never even once. No family members or friends killed. My reason? Cause and effect and a little reason thrown in. Most bars, taverns, and restaurants are not situated next to where I live. Thus, if I want to go out and drink, I will be driving under the influence in at least one direction, correct? The only time I was sure the “designated driver” was still sober was when it was me. So that left me with exactly two choices: don’t drink at all, or drink at home.
Yeah, I know…stick in the mud. Every action we take has consequences. A price. And I’m not a betting woman, so I don’t play the odds. Not on driving drunk, not on getting caught, and not on killing someone else because I’m not in control.
And younger folks are no more sensitive to the odds than anyone my age was when we were young. We still have drunks, drug addicts, smokers and unwanted pregnancies. Humans don’t — and won’t ever — change.
And yes, it IS a very nice soapbox. I’ve had it for quite awhile. Never has done a damn bit of good, though.
Blanka, you are in my prayers for a quick recovery.
Thank you all for your best wishes. I’m hoping this message hits home to some people. I’m very, very lucky to be alive. The recovery process reminds me of it every morning when I try to get up an find myself biting my lip from the pain. Gonna be a while, but I’m soldiering up ????
@14 sh1t head criminals do that Jonn….
I had a cousin who was on river boats in Vietnam, took shrapnel lived through that only to come home and have himself, his wife, and their new baby killed by a useless piece of sh1t drunk…I was 15 when that happened, I’ve never been a drinker as a consequence. I don’t like the feeling of not being in complete control of myself physically and intellectually and I absolutely can’t comprehend the mind set that is so arrogant it assumes it is better than everyone else and completely capable of operating high speed equipment while intoxicated.
No sympathy from me if they catch this pr1ck and lock their 4ss up for years.
Blanka, here’s praying for a speedy recovery with no after effect….God Bless you and keep you safe from here on out.
@27-Blanka-I can totally understand. My cousin had both her legs broken when she was hit by a car as a teen. The recovery for her was long and not without some serious pain.
But your recovery is my first hope/priority, and catching the douchebag runs a close second, if only to prevent them from doing this to someone else.
Because they WILL do it again. Not if, when.
I myself have been a victim of a drunk drive. I had just arrived at a bar on 41A in Clarksville, TN when there was an accident. My buddy and myself were the first ones there and were helping out the injured. Next thing I know I am waking up about 30 feet away in the street wiping blood out of my eyes. Turns out a drunk driver plowed into the car we were helping at. My buddy was luckier than I was. He was on the side of the car that got hit and just happed to look up at the last moment and was able to jump out of the drunks way. I never did find out what happened to the driver that gave me a concusion.
Praying for a quick recovery, Blanka.
@24 Air Cav
Actually, in your scenario, when he/she “came to” They may actually believe they hit a deer if they had no memory of the incident. Don’t anyone take that as an excuse, just sayin’…
@32. Yeah, I hear ya. I suppose if it was “black-out” driving. And it could be that the driver was stone-cold sober and made a decision to keep rolling b/c it was a stolen car, there were outstanding warrants out for him, he was just an exceptional dirtball, or he had just promised his wife he would stop cheating on her and never see that gal in Jersey City again– and then this happened–in Jersey City. I don’t know–but at some point he was aware enough to get into the car, start it, put it in D, and operate it, at least sufficiently to escape hitting Blanka. And hitting things with one’s car does tend to smack some sobriety into a person.
CORRECTION: ” to escape AFTER hitting Blanka.”
Very best wishes and prayers for a full and speedy recovery!
Anybody wants to see what it looks like when a drunk runs down a pedestrian, check out the video on this web site:
http://about-online.com/2013/08/01/videodrunk-driver-hits-two-people-in-montrose/
The one you see lying in the road got broken bones, and is still hurting three months later. The one that disappears behind the parked car was in neuro ICU for 20 days with serious brain injuries, and a long recovery ahead. The drunk wasn’t scratched.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Blanka!
Hope they catch the driver and lock em up for a long long time.
This is a huge problem up here in the Great NW.
10,11,or 12th DUI – you name it – all the time in the paper.
Its bad.
The laws need to change.
Just terrible! Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Similar advice – Don’t Drive Sleep-Deprived
The year after we graduated from high school, one of my friends was driving home the morning after his 7-11 shift, fell asleep, ran up on the sidewalk and killed a 2-year-old in a stroller. He was devastated and now has had to live with what he did the rest of his life (28 years and counting).
Blanka, prayers said and will be said for a speedy and full recovery.
Prayers and wishes for a speedy and healthy recovery, Blanka.
Incidentally, we had that happen here an 18 year old girl struck a man that had just been released from the city lockup. They found her car over in Bama in a garage, her brothers were stripping it down for her.
It doesn’t feel like it now, but you are one lucky lady!
Get well very, very soon.
Praying for you, Blanka. The Lord be with you.
A speedy recovery Blanka!! I concur with all those who refer to hit-and-run drivers, drunk or not, as spineless scum of the earth!! I used to drive a semi-truck for a living, and I’ve seen more people get killed on Interstate Highways than I have in War Zones!
First thing – Blanka, I wish you a speedy and complete recovery. Such a terrible thing to happen to you.
But second thing… ” concussion, whiplash, fractured left ankle, fractured left fibula, broken left radial bone, fractured spine, severely bruised hip and rib cage.” And you called a friend and said “Take me back to my hotel.”!!???! My dear, whatever you are made of, we could all use some of it!
Please get well soon.
George V.
Best wishes for a speedy, full and complete recovery, and dont worry about the driver. What comes around, goes around…
Speedy recovery…
And adding to it, we had an unlicensed driver, 20 years old, who had been pulled over for speeding at 0130 (59 in a 30) who then IN THE EXACT SAME SPOT several hours later that morning plows into a group of bicyclists, killing two and injuring two more.
Had she been on a suspended license, they would have arrested her, but being unlicensed, they just made her friend come by and drive her home.
And FWIW, anyone familiar with the bridge in Hampton Beach knows you shouldn’t even be doing 30 mph on that bridge, which is where she hit those people.
@48 You hear they just arrested the woman who owned the car being driven when that girl hit those bikers? Bit of a heroin dealer apparently, and the girl had spent the night there and was given the keys to the car by the woman who knew she had no license… She was also charged with drug related offenses for providing the girl with drugs.
Yeah, I heard that. When I first moved to NH I was sans permanent home so I did a weekly rental for the first couple of months there until I bought my house.
NEVER AGAIN. Hampton Beach is one scary-assed place.