Douglas Gardner, 54, appears to have been waiting a long time for a good drink and drive. After being incarcerated for 20 years after a prior fatal DUI accident, Gardner has been arrested for his 9th DUI arrest in Saint Albans, Vermont.
On April 23, 1990, Gardner crashed a stolen pick-up truck head-on into a vehicle driven by Billy Labier III, killing the college student.
In his latest accident, Gardner crashed into an embankment and was found stumbling around by the police. He was found with twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system. To make matters worse, he stole the car from a relative.
Gardner has prior arrests for escape, grand larceny, burglary, false impersonation, and breaking and entering as well as repeated DUI arrests in 1976, 1977, 1983, 1985, 1989, 1990, and 1991.
On April 23rd, 1990, Gardner crashed a stolen pick-up truck head-on into a vehicle driven by Billy Labier III, a college student. He was just released on April 14, 2010.
He could now face life under the “three strikes law” — or in his case twelve strikes or so.
For the full story, click here.
Re the ability of the sozzled to survive accidents. When I was a kid, there was a man in town who was in his car completely passed out drunk at a railroad crossing [bad place to be], when the was hit by a train. The train dragged him and his car for 50 feet or so. He only broke his arm.
Pete,
Don’t know if it’s true or not but I was always told it was because a drunk person is so limp from all the alcohol they ‘go with the flow’. A sober person stiffens up from fear. Like I said, I have any idea if that is true or not.
@ leroy.
The article doesn’t say he killed anybody this time around.
I also fail to see why trying to understand the motivation equates to sympathy. It does not.
I suggest you quit projecting.
How hard can it be to get someone what he needs to stay off the road… a personal cab?
Could be a nice gesture from the government giving back to the drinkers for all the nice taxes they pay.
this fella is the poster child of why habitual offender laws were written.
i have wondered what it is about a drunk person that they seem to disproportionally survive auto crashes.
Frankdawg.
Exactly the same thing happened to a lass I went to school with. Scrap (thanks John) just out of jail for drunk driving gets drunk, drives the wrong way down a dual carriageway into this girl who was with her fiancee in his car.
She was only 21.
Passenger in the scraps car was also killed, not that that ever bothered me – you get into a car with a piss head, you take the consequences.
Stel, then, perhaps, it a shame he didn’t find someone close to you so to kill so you could sympathize more closely with him.
I really don’t give a rats ass about his motivation. If all he wanted to do was go back to jail he could have walked into any bank, made a ‘gun’ out of his finger & told the teller to empty the till. He would have been ‘home’ all warm and dry & nobody would have died.
Perhaps I’m giving him too much benefit of the doubt, but he could have done this on purpose. He’s 54, with a long criminal record. No hope of a job or a comfortable retirement. Prison is all that he knows. He may just want to go home.
Let’s hope the judge does say, “three strikes, you’re out”, and locks him up for life.
This man has apparently no self control, nor any empathy for other human beings. While incarcerating him for the rest of his life would at least remove him from being a danger to society, he would remain a burden on society.
Maybe he should just be locked in a cell, and provided with an unlimited supply of alcohol, let him hasten his own demise via alcohol poisoning, and let the rest of us get on with our lives.
I don’t like handcuffing judges any more than anyone else, but can someone make an argument against this guy getting life prior to the fatal accident? One DUI could be a dumb mistake (though one they should still serve significant time for). Five represents the person saying to society, “I either can’t or won’t stop myself from doing this, therefore you need to protect yourself from me.”
My cousin was murdered by a drunk driver – 2PM on the day he was released from prison for a previous drunk-driving murder. He was speeding the wrong way on a divided road. She could have gone up on the sidewalk to avoid the impact but there were pedestrians there.
To paraphrase Blood Sweat & Tears: I know their ain’t no heave but I pray there is a hell.
Whenever you make something, such as furniture, cars, houses, etc etc…WHENEVER you make something you have stuff left over that is called “scrap”.
No one ever tries to save every piece of scrap, unless it can be recycled into something useful, but once they see it cannot be reused, its gotten rid of.
When we have “scrap” left over from society, if it can’t be recycled into something useful, get rid of it.
This guy is one such piece of scrap.
After being incarcerated for twenty years this man was still an alcoholic. He probably thought it would be different this time.
Since this was a DUI and has not been charged with Larceny of a vehicle or grand theft auto, etc. Is it not most likely that the previous convictions are too old to be charged as a felony? Unless he was on parole or the state has in place under the “mandated” truth in sentencing guidelines that there be some lapse between the time of release and the offense.
I’d say this guy just did not get it. It is unfortunate.