An Upland police officer was watching a residential intersection last week, keeping an eye out for drivers blowing through the stop signs. One driver did exactly that, right in front of him. When he pulled her over, police say he found she had never been issued a driver’s license and was driving at more than twice the legal limit.
She was swiftly arrested with a DUI. Her brother was with her, and he’d had a few too many drinks himself. According to the Upland Police Department, he tried to explain his sister’s driving to the officers, but it didn’t help her case.
It could have ended much worse. An unlicensed, heavily impaired driver running stop signs is exactly how people end up hurt or killed. Instead, no one was hurt. Not the driver, not her brother, and not anyone else on the road, which is the best possible way the situation could have turned out.
The Upland Police Department shared the stop as a bit of a warning to anyone who graced their page They used the situation to remind people how easily a night of drinking can turn deadly behind the wheel. Their advice was simple. Call an Uber or a Lyft, and get home in one piece.
Why This Stop Was Worse Than Your Average Ticket
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In California, you’re considered legally drunk at a blood alcohol level of 0.08 percent. This particular driver was at more than twice that, and at that level, vision, reaction time, and judgment are all heavily affected, which is a big part of why she rolled through a stop sign with an officer sitting right there.
On top of that, police say the sister had never been issued a driver’s license. That’s a completely separate offense from the DUI, and a serious one. It means she was on the road without ever passing a test, which is concerning for several reasons. Combined with the alcohol, it made for a stop far more serious than a missed stop sign. That’s putting it lightly.
Drunk Driving is No Joke
The numbers when it comes to drunk driving are quite grim. Around 12,000 people are killed in drunk-driving crashes in the U.S. every year, and that’s no small number. That comes out to about one person every 44 minutes, a scarily high amount.
The hardest part is that every one of those deaths is preventable. The driver in Upland got lucky, and so did everyone around her that day. The next person who runs a stop sign drunk might not be so lucky, which is the whole reason the department shared the stop.