Driver has 18 times legal alcohol limit

By LIUDAS DAPKUS
Associated Press Writer

LINK (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LITHUANIA_RECORD_DRINK_DRIVER?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)

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.

Remind me to never drive in Lithuania

WOW, that is high. We had a patient not too long ago with a blood alcohol level just above .5 and that was the highest that I had ever heard about. It took him a LONG time to detox while he was there. They still don't know how he lived. Apparently he was still walking also and the only reason that he was brought into the ER was because he slipped, fell, busted his head wide open, and was bleeding all over the place.

a little conversion:

lithuania's legal limit in an american standard is a paltry .04 (compared to our general .08)
this guy was at a .727
for reference .3 is unconsciousness
.4 is generally enough to put you in a coma
.5 kills the average person

posting a .727 is an impressive feat especially while conscious. Now thats some alcohol tolerance. (in american terms this is 'only' nine times the legal limit :lol2:)

a large man (220lbs) will need 6 drinks to get to .1%. this guy had roughly equivalent of 45 or so drinks. roughly 1.5oz of liquor is equal to one drink so to match this feat (as a large guy) you'd need to drink some 2 liters of vodka. And stay up.

Wow.

a little conversion:

lithuania's legal limit in an american standard is a paltry .04 (compared to our general .08)
this guy was at a .727
for reference .3 is unconsciousness
.4 is generally enough to put you in a coma
.5 kills the average person

posting a .727 is an impressive feat especially while conscious. Now thats some alcohol tolerance. (in american terms this is 'only' nine times the legal limit :lol2:)

a large man (220lbs) will need 6 drinks to get to .1%. this guy had roughly equivalent of 45 or so drinks. roughly 1.5oz of liquor is equal to one drink so to match this feat (as a large guy) you'd need to drink some 2 liters of vodka. And stay up.

Wow.


lmao.

The guy was friggin' hammered.

That's just crazy!!!! I had a friend several years back who had .45 and he went into a coma for three days. He slumped to the floor unconscious, so an ambulance was called to take him to the hospital. He eventually recovered and seemed to be okay.

That's just crazy!!!! I had a friend several years back who had .45 and he went into a coma for three days. He slumped to the floor unconscious, so an ambulance was called to take him to the hospital. He eventually recovered and seemed to be okay.

alcohol effects the body in many ways but one of the ways is to cause actual neuron death which immediately causes an increased concentration of intracellular calcium. This has the added effect of weakening the electrochemical gradient which reduces synaptic response between brain cells. yeah at levels above .5 the deteriorated synaptic response is usually extensive enough to cause central nervous system failure (explains the reason for a comatose state in slightly lower concentrations as well)

don't forget that when metabolised a number of toxic materials are created, including free radicals which cause direct damage to all types of cells.

Alcohol rolls natural 20s.

A tolerance to extremely high alcohol levels is common among alcoholics. It's not unusual for an alcoholic to have a blood alcohol level that would kill a non-alcoholic. It has something to do with the way alcoholics' bodies metabolize alcohol differently (details escape me).

That's just crazy!!!! I had a friend several years back who had .45 and he went into a coma for three days. He slumped to the floor unconscious, so an ambulance was called to take him to the hospital. He eventually recovered and seemed to be okay.

What a lightweight. :yelrotflm

Must have been a wicked hangover.

Maybe it's on snopes or something, but I recall hearing an urban legend of someone who beat a drunk driving charge because he registered so high that a normal person would have been considered dead, so his defence said that the machine must have been in error.

I imagine this guys BAC would qualify for that.

Wow, that is huge. My brother is a CHP officer, I think he told me the office record ever was .42, and the guy had crashed on the side of the road. Not counting the dead ones, where they didn't do autopsies.

A tolerance to extremely high alcohol levels is common among alcoholics. It's not unusual for an alcoholic to have a blood alcohol level that would kill a non-alcoholic. It has something to do with the way alcoholics' bodies metabolize alcohol differently (details escape me).


i think its a matter of chronic drinkers having more alcohol dehydrogenase to metabolise the alcohol...they have more so the alcohol is processed faster but in an unnatural way. Soemthing about the fats being deposited inside the liver as opposed to outside (think beer belly) that eventually leads to liver damage, and diminished liver function.

Wow, his liver's probably shattered in 4000 pieces.

Not counting the dead ones, where they didn't do autopsies.

bs... toxicology reports are conducted in mid autopsy.

i like how they announced it as the "unofficial national record" hahaha

:bsflag:

SORRY....ain't believing this one.

I bet he claims he is not guilty of any wrong doing. How dare those cops pull him over. He did nothing wrong. :Eyecrazy: :yelrotflm

He must of had a bunch of :40oz: and driving like :dubs: and said :ftw: when he saw the police lights. He then said :dammit: when he got pulled over and looked like :us4allswi during his dui test. The cops were so surpirsed at his drunkenness that they made him take a :piss: test to confirm it. Then he :puke: for hours.

2 girls in Kinnenolon, NJ, minutes away from me, were run over by a drunk driver and killed. I believe it happened last month. They were 16 and 17 year old cousins walking home from the movies I believe.

a little conversion:

lithuania's legal limit in an american standard is a paltry .04 (compared to our general .08)
this guy was at a .727
for reference .3 is unconsciousness
.4 is generally enough to put you in a coma
.5 kills the average person

posting a .727 is an impressive feat especially while conscious. Now thats some alcohol tolerance. (in american terms this is 'only' nine times the legal limit :lol2:)

a large man (220lbs) will need 6 drinks to get to .1%. this guy had roughly equivalent of 45 or so drinks. roughly 1.5oz of liquor is equal to one drink so to match this feat (as a large guy) you'd need to drink some 2 liters of vodka. And stay up.

Wow.

Holy shite! :angel: