back to article Drunk driver live-streams her slow journey home

US woman Whitney Beall has been arrested by Florida police after live-streaming herself drunk driving. The City of Lakeland Police department says that on Saturday it “... began receiving 911 calls from viewers of Periscope about a possible drunk driver using the social media APP Periscope to broadcast herself.” Officers …

  1. alain williams Silver badge

    What a stupid thing to do ...

    You would have to be drunk to do that ... Oh, wait ...

    1. Roq D. Kasba

      Re: What a stupid thing to do ...

      DRUNK... in a CAR...in the USA!

      That's nice, dear.

    2. TRT Silver badge

      Re: What a stupid thing to do ...

      Would have been far sweeter if the video ended with her face being lit up by blue and red flashing lights.

      1. VinceH
        Unhappy

        Re: What a stupid thing to do ...

        Disappointingly, I jumped straight to the last minute or two of the video in the hope of seeing just that.

    3. Martin
      WTF?

      Re: What a stupid thing to do ...

      I don't know much about Periscope - it's nothing I would be interested in. So I'm not sure how it works.

      Is that title something she actually put into Periscope before the video started? Did she actually put up a live-streaming video onto the public internet which she labelled "Driving home drunk"?

      Is it really possible that someone could be that incomprehensibly stupid, even when drunk?

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: What a stupid thing to do ...

        She is obviously an economist/data scientist and a campaigner for public safety - demonstrating the famous result that it is 10x safer to drive home drunk than walk.

        1. MonkeyCee

          Re: What a stupid thing to do ...

          Apart from it isn't....

          It's one of the good examples from freakonomics (or superfreakonomics, not sure which book) where they have some data for one side (drunk driving) and NO data for the other side, which they then constructed by saying that, if you assume people walk drunk in exactly the same proportion as drive drunk. Which you then can conclude, on a per mile basis, that driving drunk is 8 times more personally safe and 5 times less likely to cause a fatality. Drunk driven miles make up less than 1% of car travel (by freakonmics numbers) but are involved with between 30% and 60% of fatal accidents.

          Of course those stats are for the USA, where apparently no-one walks much and everyone drives a lot, so for other countries the figure varies quite a lot. It also includes ALL fatalities where a person was drunk, and not in a vehicle.

          Perhaps most importantly, it's a per mile traveled figure, which can give you all sorts of wonderful statistics about vehicle safety. Motorbikes, planes, trains, HGVs and buses are 10-100 times "safer" than cars on a per mile travelled figure, but it's not nearly as entertaining. Or even that unexpected, since a number of these vehicles require a higher grade of licence, and are often driven professionally.

  2. stucs201

    Vertical Video Syndrome - A PSA

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt9zSfinwFA

    1. TitterYeNot
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: Vertical Video Syndrome - A PSA

      Priceless!

      "And George Lucas will re-release Star Wars. Again! The Skinny Edition...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Vertical Video Syndrome - A PSA

      Too right, I had the same thought 1 second into the video

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I think America should ban all cars and to hell with the National Car Association.

    1. CraPo

      I'll give you my steering wheel...

      when your pry it from my cold, dead hands!

      1. Dazed and Confused
        Joke

        Re: I'll give you my steering wheel...

        That's OK, you can keep the steering wheel. :-)

      2. VinceH
        Coat

        Re: I'll give you my steering wheel...

        "when your pry it from my cold, dead hands!"

        Don't worry - the National Rifle Car Association will stand by you. They'll be sure to insist that problems like this aren't solved by taking cars off the road: More cars are needed! More, damn it! MORE!

        1. leon clarke

          Re: I'll give you my steering wheel...

          The only thing that can stop a bad guy in a car is so many other cars that all the roads gridlock.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Trollface

          Re: I'll give you my steering wheel...

          If I saw someone doing that I'd run them off the road with my SUV!

          Nah, on second thought I'd shoot out their tires and radiator. That's how we roll in the USA.

          Seriously though, we need to address the root of the problem. WE MUST BAN ALCOHOL!!!

          1. DropBear
            Pint

            Re: I'll give you my steering wheel...

            "WE MUST BAN ALCOHOL!!!"

            EXACTLY! ..wait. Didn't you guys try exactly that once before...? Oh OK then, as you were... --->

            1. ThomH

              Re: I'll give you my steering wheel...

              In true NRA fashion I think that the best way to limit drunk driving is to increase the level of drunkenness in total, so that if anyone sees a drunk driver they somehow think they should charge in and get involved.

          2. kiwimuso
            Mushroom

            Re: I'll give you my steering wheel...

            @ tnovelli

            Nah, we need to ban PEOPLE! Down with people! They are the cause of all our problems.

            I will be first to volunteer - in about, ummmm, 10 years or so, which will be about when I'm due to shuffle anyway.

            Icon shows the direction I am most probably headed!!!! ----->

        3. BlartVersenwaldIII

          Re: I'll give you my steering wheel...

          <quote>Don't worry - the National Rifle Car Association will stand by you. They'll be sure to insist that problems like this aren't solved by taking cars off the road: More cars are needed! More, damn it! MORE!</quote>

          But of course. Think of what would happen if every pedestrian who was killed by a car, instead of being a defenceless sack of meat, was actually carrying a car themselves? Drunk drivers would think twice about running over car-toting pedestrians then.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The ONLY reason why you have a....

      mass transit system is because all of you are already legally drunk by 1:00pm and stay that way 'til you pass out.

    3. 404

      Impossible - for historic reasons

      If you look at the US and it's development in a historic context, you'll see that the NorthEast portion is like Britain or Europe. Towns are closer together due to the transportation methods at the time, you walked or rode a horse. As the US expanded across the continent, transportation methods improved (Industrial Revolution etc), thus towns and cities grew further apart. So, without a massive 'Hero Project' building mass transportation (or teleportation lol) across the US, cars will be here for some time to come.

  4. jake Silver badge

    Further proof that idiots abound ...

    ... and all of them use so-called "social" media.

    That is all.

  5. chivo243 Silver badge

    She's not even in Texas!'

    that is all...

    1. AndyS

      Re: She's not even in Texas!'

      Florida seems to be slowly but surely replacing Texas at the top of the brain-dead stakes. Texas at least has Houston going for it, after all, and it's not like red-necks are rare in the alligator-swamps of Florida.

      1. jake Silver badge

        @AndyS (was: Re: She's not even in Texas!')

        "Texas at least has Houston going for it"

        Houston???? Hopefully you misspleld Austin!

        1. chivo243 Silver badge

          Re: @AndyS (was: She's not even in Texas!')

          From the State of Texas, where drinking and driving is considered a

          sport, comes a true story about drinking wisely.

          Recently a routine police patrol was parked outside a local neighborhood bar.

          Late in the evening the officer noticed a man leaving the bar so intoxicated

          that he could barely walk. The man stumbled around the parking lot

          for a few minutes with the officer quietly observing. After what seemed an

          eternity and trying his keys on five different vehicles, the man

          managed to find his own car, which he fell into. He was there for a

          few minutes as a number of other patrons left the bar and drove off.

          Finally he started the car, switched the wipers on and off (it was a dry

          night), flicked the hazard flasher on and off, tooted the horn and

          then switched on the lights. He moved the vehicle forward a few inches,

          reversed a little and then remained stationary for a few more minutes as more

          patrons left in their vehicles. At last he pulled

          out of the parking lot and started to drive slowly down the street.

          The police officer, having patiently waited all this time, now

          started up his patrol car, put on the flashing lights, promptly pulled

          the man over and carried out a Breathalyzer test. To his amazement

          the Breathalyzer

          indicated no evidence of the man having consumed alcohol at all!

          Dumbfounded, the officer said "I'll have to ask you to accompany me

          to the Police station. This Breathalyzer equipment must be broken."

          "I doubt it," said the man, "Tonight I'm the designated decoy."

          1. John H Woods Silver badge

            "Tonight I'm the designated decoy"

            LOL, but; in the UK at least I think you could be prosecuted for drunk driving on the basis of that statement. IANALBIPOOTI and I think that Accessories and Abettors Act (1861) still has a relevant provision in force (much of the Act has been superseded by the Criminal Law Act 1967) that states:

            "Whosoever shall aid, abet, counsel, or procure the commission of any indictable offence, whether the same be an offence at common law or by virtue of any Act passed or to be passed, shall be liable to be tried, indicted, and punished as a principal offender."

  6. frank ly

    A hint of the future

    “... does not provide officers with access to Periscope as an authorized software tool and therefore they did not have the ability to monitor the driver’s actions.”

    So, load up police computers with Periscope, Facebook, Instagram, Google +, etc, etc ..... then watch their efficiency soar.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Big Brother

      Re: A hint of the future

      You've no idea how it works do you?

      No , no, no....they will need access to EVERYONE else's account, so they can just browse the accounts, you know, just in case.

  7. Your alien overlord - fear me

    “The streaming Periscope video highlights the dangers of ..." narcissism.

  8. TRT Silver badge

    I... erm... people...

    can't get, like, the erm... hang of this pissyscrote thing.

  9. Turtle

    A Life Sentence.

    That video is going to be like a ball and chain; that video is going to follow that girl around for the rest of her life.

    And serves her right, too.

  10. Yugguy

    Plumbing the depths of stupidity

    You can't. It's bottomless.

  11. phil dude
    Joke

    hang on...

    the cynic in me is thinking "Did people *really* call 911 on seeing someone driving drunk?"

    Or is this parallel construction for when the govt uses their ability to turn on your phone and snaffle the video...

    </shrugs>

    P.

    1. DropBear
      Facepalm

      Re: hang on...

      So tell me - does she seem to be unaware of the "camera" in the video...? No...? Quite the opposite? Well then...

  12. Grade%

    A laugh shrug headshake.

    How does that quote go, you can't make something idiot proof because they make a better idiot? I think we found the mom.

  13. ItsNotMe
    Facepalm

    But wait...it gets better.

    "An officer was able to use their personal account in an effort to locate the driver. The officer was able to find the driver based observations and landmarks from the streaming video. At this time, she was driving a 2015 Toyota Corolla with a flat left front tire."

    http://www.wptv.com/news/state/whitney-marie-beall-arrested-for-dui-after-broadcasting-a-drunk-girl-driving-periscope-video

  14. MaxM

    She's even better...

    ... do you know what people are doing to get fame? That video following her might just earn her a reality show! Million ways to skin a cat they say.

    1. chivo243 Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: She's even better...

      I was thinking the same thing... maybe a guest spot on the Kartrashians to start with? Or maybe do a duet with that little twerp Bieber... seems famous people are doing stupid shit just to keep their name in the spotlight.

  15. HereIAmJH

    Thoughtful criminals

    I applaud this new trend of thoughtful criminals in Florida. First it's the guy that left his court documents (1st stolen car) in the 2nd stolen car. Now it's drunks recording videos of their attempt to drive home. Both should be a slam dunk conviction and will lighten the load of overworked police officers.

    1. chivo243 Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: Thoughtful criminals

      they should produce offspring... really plum the depths of idiocy.

  16. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    "the cynic in me is thinking "Did people *really* call 911 on seeing someone driving drunk?"

    In US, people are NOT cool with drunk driving. The drivers here are too poor when sober, there's too much traffic on the roads, to have some drunk bastard careening down the road. Even worse, screwing around with her cell phone while driving! Yes, I'm sure she was called in.

    To be honest, I've had enough problems with people screwing around on their phones when the car is rolling down the road (I can't refer to this as "driving" because they are not driving, they are letting the car to go where it will while they stare at the phone...). Since she was holding the phone with one hand (instead of using some kind of mount), and frequently looking at it... if I'd seen this live video I'd have called her into the police even if she was stone-sober, for screwing with the phone while driving.

    Chivo243, hehe... I found the designated decoy hilarious 8-)

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