Erratic Driving Caught On Tape
By Lisa Baldwin
POSTED: Tuesday, July 8, 2008
HOUSTON -- A man thought he was being a Good Samaritan by videotaping what he thought was a drunken driver to help Houston police get the driver off the streets, KPRC Local 2 reported Monday.
"This guy couldn't maintain a single lane for more than about one minute," Kelly Potter said. "He did not belong on the road."
Potter said that a van forced his car off the road on Beltway 8 near Bissonnet Street at about 11:30 p.m. Thursday. Potter called 911 to report the driver and his passenger pulled out his video camera to record the driver.
The video showed that the driver continued to weave in and out of lanes for about 20 minutes. Potter stayed on the phone with the dispatcher
"He's going to kill somebody" Potter said.
A Houston police officer eventually pulled the driver over. After speaking with the driver, the officer determined that there was no indication the driver was impaired and saw no need to give a field sobriety test. He let the driver go home to his nearby apartment.
"We're paying the police officer's salary and they're letting drunks go," Potter said. "I have a wife and four kids driving around on the same streets as this guy."
"It is up to each officer's discretion on whether to give a sobriety test," Houston police spokesman Officer Gabe Ortiz said.
KPRC Local 2 legal analyst Brian Wice said the officer was the only person fit to make the decision to let the driver go.
"He (the officer) was there and we weren't," Wice said. "The fact that that officer ultimately concluded based upon their experience, training and expertise that no further investigation was needed, while somewhat dismaying to the Good Samaritan and maybe to some of us, ultimately that's a decision that we don't have the right to second guess."
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