Drunk driver's "pelican neck" defense fails

Posted by Mark Frauenfelder, February 19, 2008 6:19 AM | permalink

A man in Perthshire UK was found guilty of drunk driving, despite his claim that he has a unique “balloon-like” sac in his neck that stores alcohol in his throat and caused the breathalyzer to falsely indicate he was drunk.

Harvey admitted he then crashed his car into a ditch and was climbing out of the window when police arrived.
He also accepted his breath smelled of alcohol when he was questioned by police.
However, he told the court he had since been diagnosed with “laryngocele” and had undergone an operation to have a sac the size of a tennis ball removed.
The accused said he had been driving home after visiting family members when he decided to stop by a river to drink some wine.

Link (Thanks, Simmie!)

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Discussion

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#1 posted by Halloween Jack , February 19, 2008 6:36 AM

And I'm really a robot who has to drink alcohol to avoid the symptoms of drunkenness. Bite my shiny metal ass, DUI court!

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#2 posted by noen , February 19, 2008 9:05 AM

Desperation is the mother of invention for some I guess.

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#3 posted by fontgoddess

, February 19, 2008 9:17 AM

Well, it's good he got that fixed then.

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#4 posted by ZippySpincycle , February 19, 2008 10:43 AM

OK, but what about the guy in Wenatchee WA who crashed his car into a light pole last December?

When police asked the man what caused the accident, his one-word answer was "pterodactyl"

I mean, he never claimed that he was a pterodactyl, after all...

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20071229/NEWS02/290431530

(Sadly, the website that reported the accident doesn't seem to have any follow-up...)

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#5 posted by UncommonSense , February 19, 2008 10:50 AM

I think this would actually be a 'Zenker's diverticulum' which occurs in the esophagus rather than the larynx. Hard to understand why he was pouring wine into his lungs if that was the case. Anyway, this caught my attention, since it seemed similar to a story I read about someone having a Zenker's diverticulum. Read about it on Wikipedia, and then contemplate the resultant chronic halitosis.

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#6 posted by UncommonSense , February 19, 2008 10:55 AM

or possibly a pharyngocele...

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#7 posted by Fnarf , February 19, 2008 12:52 PM

"The accused said he had been driving home after visiting family members when he decided to stop by a river to drink some wine."

This is sheer poetry. It should be accompanied by some tragic Delta blues guitar.

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#8 posted by redsquid , February 19, 2008 5:22 PM

Wow- I read FARK too.