Lesson: if you hit a celebrity while driving intoxicated, your picture will be posted nationwide.

Look---I'm totally against driving while intoxicated, and this lady was indeed, intoxicated.

But I can't help feel a bit sorry for her. Hell---this might have been one of her first criminal offenses ever. She might have had something go terribly wrong in her life, foreclosure, death of a relative, whatever, and she hit the bottle. Then she made the stupid mistake of hopping in her car, a mistake that has been made by pretty much all of us, and driving home.

Again, dumb mistake because she could have easily killed someone. Thing is, the courts don't look to kindly on what she did and she is about to go through a legal nightmare. Deserved indeed.

BUT!!!! Hit a celebrity, and everyone in America knows who you are because tabloid journalism loves the ratings.



GLOUCESTER, Mass. --
Sandra Bullock and her husband were unhurt after a head-on crash with a drunken driver, police said Saturday.

The actress and her husband, Jesse James of TV's "Monster Garage," were being driven in a sport-utility vehicle Friday night when a station wagon crossed the center line and hit them, said Gloucester police Lt. Jerry Cook.

Both vehicles were totaled, but no one was hurt. The vehicles were traveling 15 to 20 mph, Cook said.

The other car was driven by Lucille Gatchell, who registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.20 percent, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent, Cook said.
http://www.miamiherald.com/804/story/502395.html

I heard about it on the local news station (I live not too far from Gloucester) and they didn't say who the driver was or show a photo. That's the way you're supposed to do it.

but what if it's her first criminal offense?

For the rest of her life, she'll be known as the lady who is a drunk.

and not a Corolla. They would be dead.:evilgrin:

Viewable on the local news website unless you click the link to see them.

Gloucester Police: Sandra Bullock 'Gracious' After Crash

Actress, Husband Not Hurt

View Photos

POSTED: 7:01 am EDT April 20, 2008

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/15936756/detail.html

"Bullock, 43, was "gracious," and concerned that Gatchell was OK, Cook said.

Gatchell, 64, of Gloucester tested .20 on an alcohol breath test, more than twice the legal limit
of .08, Cook said.

She was held by Gloucester police overnight and released Saturday on personal recognizance.

Gatchell, who has no previous record, will be arraigned Tuesday in Gloucester District Court.

Gatchell at first had no idea who she hit, then reacted with disbelief when she found out her
first alleged drunk driving offense involved someone famous, Cook said.

Gatchell did not immediately return a call for comment Saturday."

-------

Seems harsh to post her pic, as a 1st offender but it's not against the law either.

Maybe that law needs to tweaked. And they say the cars was totaled but to look at

the pics of the car, it has a smashed in left front fender but doesn't look totaled to me!!

Plus--there aint no way that vehicle is totaled.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/entertainment/15931720/detail.html

Anything for sensationalism. :puke:

Yeah. I have the link right in front of me.

From what I've read, Sandra Bullock is handling this a whole lot better than the Gloucester police have.

:shrug:

I tend to get ticked off at CNN and the like who want to sensationalize the story for their ratings.

Let's face it, though, few of us really scan the faces of the person driving the car heading towards us on the road. What earthly good does it do anyone to know that this person was once (or maybe more?) arrested for drunk driving? It's not as if anyone will be able to dredge that factoid from their memory in the milliseconds before an imminent collision -- even if one's vision is good enough to even make out who is even in the car!

My only point, stated badly.

then be pissed at the news media, not the police.

It's public information and the police have to release it.

:hi:

her picture is now a matter of public record since she broke the law, and this is a human interest story

I don't feel the least bit sorry for her and anyone who has lost a loved one to a drunk driver wouldn't either. It is probably the most preventable "accident" on the planet.

Drunk driving is a threat to anyone who not just gets behind the wheel but walks out their door. I've had too many friends involved in alcohol-related accidents, and as you say, they're all preventable. If this lady wants to drink her life into the gutter...that's her right...but when she gets behind a wheel and speeds a 2 ton weapon through a neighborhood at 40 or 50mph, then her problem ia a public one.

Here's hoping this embarassment leads to her getting much needed help.

Of couse, the corporate media will play this story up...it's far easier than discussing issues of real substance.

Maybe if this was how we treated ALL drunk drivers, not just those who hit celebrities, that would be the best thing.

I am in full sympathy with this woman's problems, and if she wanted to have a few too many in her own house to try to ease the pain temporarily, well, that's her business. But when she drank and then got behind the wheel of a car, she instantly made it everyone else's business, by putting the life of not only herself, but of everyone else sharing the road with her, in danger.

She's damn lucky she didn't kill anyone, or herself, this very first time out. If embarrassment is the worst she gets from this, she'll be very fortunate.

Yes, it's unfair, in that she's only being publicized like this because she happened to hit Sandra Bullock. This kind of publicity should hit everyone who does this. Because if it did, it might serve as a real deterrent.

We're way too tolerant of drunk driving in this society. We regard it as something "just about all of us have done at one time or another," and therefore encouraged to regard the drunk driver with sympathy...after all, he or she could be you.

We need to change that. We need to make people realize that drunk driving isn't a "there but for the grace of God go you" crime...it's a crime people deliberately choose to commit when they make the decision to drive after they have been drinking. True, some get caught and some do not...but regardless, it's wrong and there can be tragic results THE VERY FIRST TIME.

We need LESS identification with the drunk driver, and MORE identification with his or her victims. More realization that when we climb behind the wheel sober, it's unfair for us not to know when or where a drunk driver might be coming right at us...we need to look at the VICTIMS and think "there but for the grace of God go we."

I'm blasting the media for its sensationalism.

Public shame can be a good deterrent and punishment.

I agree that the media sensationalized this situation since a celebrity was involved. If instead of Sandra Bullock, it was Sandra nobody, I doubt CNN would even give the story any notice.

I have heard on some areas of convicted drunk drivers having to put a bumper sticker on their car proclaiming such.

It was just her lucky day to have crashed into a celebrity couple.

Right, Paris?

Damn pieces of shit.

I mean, if I hit a celebrity -- car, fist, grand piano, whatever -- I'd expect applause, not condemnation.

The very least would be the keys to the city and a nice plaque honoring my small role in raising the average American IQ a trillionth of a point.

And I'd want some great prizes, too. How great I guess depends on the celebrity.

If it's Paris or OJ or Tiffany or any of the hundred thousand 16-year-old performing clones who get rich by pandering to the chronically shitty, tabloid-driven taste of the American subculture of dorks and weenies and the lowest common pop culture denominator...

-- if it's one of them, I could see maybe some serious money coming my way; maybe an all-expenses-paid year in Paris (not THAT Paris) or Florence thrown in.

On the other hand, if I accidentally hit somebody with actual talent, I'd feel so guilty that I'd probably beg for jail time to even things out.

Ah well... I guess it helps to be a little lucky at such times.


wp


Edited for sense (yeah, right)