Lipps gets DUI after crash in Pittsburgh

[Dwinsgames]

November 07, 2021 at 6:40 pm ESTBy WPXI.com News Staff
PITTSBURGH — Former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Louis Lipps Jr. was arrested on suspicion of DUI after a crash Saturday night on Mount Washington.


According to a criminal complaint, police were dispatched to the 30 block of Ruth Street for an accident report just before 11 p.m. The responding officer found Lipps behind the wheel of a 2012 Ram pickup truck. His wife was in the front passenger seat.


Police said the truck had crashed into a trailer in front of a home on Ruth Street.


The responding officer said when Lipps looked at him, he could see Lipps had “bloodshot, watery and glassy eyes.” The officer said he could “smell signs of an intoxicated beverage coming from [Lipps’] breath.” Lipps was allegedly stuttering and slurring his words while trying to talk to the officer at the scene.


The complaint stated Lipps didn’t know he had hit the trailer when the officer informed him of what allegedly happened. The officer asked him to step out of the truck and performed a field sobriety test. Lipps allegedly “almost fell/stumbled to the ground to the point officers had to catch him from falling over.”

full story here https://www.wpxi.com/sports/nfl/pittsburgh-steelers/former-steeler-arrested-suspicion-dui-after-crash-mount-washington/IMM7PZ4OPFDCDPIACCHMWTFAHM/

[86WARD]

They should really increase the penalty for DUI/DWI with all the ways to get home safely...there’s no excuse for getting behind the wheel drunk.

[Hawkman]

They should really increase the penalty for DUI/DWI with all the ways to get home safely...there’s no excuse for getting behind the wheel drunk.

Agreed!

[EzraTank]

They should really increase the penalty for DUI/DWI with all the ways to get home safely...there’s no excuse for getting behind the wheel drunk.

I agree, .235% is REALLY high. I think the legal limit is .08%. It's not like he was close to that either.

[Squeegee Thompson]

I agree, .235% is REALLY high. I think the legal limit is .08%. It's not like he was close to that either.

.235% is absolutely scrambled. This isn't just impaired, it's borderline blackout drunk.

[steelreserve]

They should really increase the penalty for DUI/DWI with all the ways to get home safely...there’s no excuse for getting behind the wheel drunk.

They are pretty harsh already, but I would like to see something added on for the people who are absolutely shitfaced (like in this case). Similar to how they have much worse penalties for reckless driving than just regular speeding tickets.

I personally won't drive if I've had any alcohol at all - it's already just not worth it. But as for who they should be targeting, it's the ones who are totally hammered (like Lipps). That's how you get people killed. I don't think that higher penalties across the board are going to get the attention of people who are liable to do that; they just go, "ah, DUI laws have been hard for years, what's the difference." And those are exactly the same people who will keep going back out on the road, and kill someone on their second or third DUI when they're just as hammered. But if they added a special category where they will screw you to the wall, like automatically lose your license for 10 years, death penalty if you kill someone, on top of whatever else happens, either those people would think twice about it or they'd be off the road anyway.

[Mojouw]

I have no idea what the solution is...but in Wisconsin and other surrounding upper midwestern states, it is not uncommon for people to still be driving and out of prison with 10+ DUI/DWI/OWI tickets. So, maybe it is a state by state solution? Sounds like the penalties are fairly serious in CA, but here in WI they are basically a joke.

[steelreserve]

In CA you can basically expect to be out minimum $5,000-$10,000 for a first offense (after all the fees and insurance hikes) and your license might be suspended for a few months, but I think it's pretty rare for people to get jail time unless they hurt someone. Still plenty of drunks on the roads, though. A lot of people with a suspended license just keep driving anyway. A lot of them don't have a license in the first place. Pile on more fines and suspensions, what do they care, they didn't have their shit together enough to pay off the first one. I suspect these are a lot of the same types of people you find with multiple DUIs in the Midwest.

The two observations I have about the situation here are that 1) Most of the times you hear about a horrific DUI crash, the person was double or triple the legal limit, rarely borderline (or at least it seems that way). And 2) Repeat and severely impaired drunk driving has become largely the province of poor people, young people, people with a criminal history, or people with real hardcore addictions. For people who generally follow the laws and try to lead normal lives, the penalties hurt enough to make it absolutely not worth it. But if you are so broke that you couldn't realistically pay off the fines, or if you are used to having trouble because of poor decisions, then the penalties aren't real.

Best advice to avoid DUI fatalities here is never be a pedestrian after midnight.

[EzraTank]

In CA you can basically expect to be out minimum $5,000-$10,000 for a first offense (after all the fees and insurance hikes) and your license might be suspended for a few months, but I think it's pretty rare for people to get jail time unless they hurt someone. Still plenty of drunks on the roads, though. A lot of people with a suspended license just keep driving anyway. A lot of them don't have a license in the first place. Pile on more fines and suspensions, what do they care, they didn't have their shit together enough to pay off the first one. I suspect these are a lot of the same types of people you find with multiple DUIs in the Midwest.

The two observations I have about the situation here are that 1) Most of the times you hear about a horrific DUI crash, the person was double or triple the legal limit, rarely borderline (or at least it seems that way). And 2) Repeat and severely impaired drunk driving has become largely the province of poor people, young people, people with a criminal history, or people with real hardcore addictions. For people who generally follow the laws and try to lead normal lives, the penalties hurt enough to make it absolutely not worth it. But if you are so broke that you couldn't realistically pay off the fines, or if you are used to having trouble because of poor decisions, then the penalties aren't real.

Best advice to avoid DUI fatalities here is never be a pedestrian after midnight.

Unless you're an illegal, then you just get deported and come right back in.

[Shoes]

Here in Sweden they have taken DUI & saving lives serious. I can remember in the 90's when I lived here, they would be doing sobriety tests between 5am to 7 am in the morning because they knew late night drinkers would be on the road and still over the limit heading off to work.

https://www.lifesafer.com/blog/sweden-figured-drunk-driving/

[steelreserve]

Here in Sweden they have taken DUI & saving lives serious. I can remember in the 90's when I lived here, they would be doing sobriety tests between 5am to 7 am in the morning because they knew late night drinkers would be on the road and still over the limit heading off to work.

https://www.lifesafer.com/blog/sweden-figured-drunk-driving/

Man, people in Sweden must be hardcore alcoholics. If they got so blotto they're still drunk at 7 a.m., most people I know wouldn't be trying to go to work, just flopping around in bed.

This is an interesting point, though. I wouldn't think most of the bad accidents and deaths are caused by borderline cases or hungover people going to work. Mostly the ones who are legitimately wasted coming back from the party at midnight to 4 a.m. The Swedish way seems like the opposite of what they should be doing, to be honest.

[Shoes]

Man, people in Sweden must be hardcore alcoholics. If they got so blotto they're still drunk at 7 a.m., most people I know wouldn't be trying to go to work, just flopping around in bed.

This is an interesting point, though. I wouldn't think most of the bad accidents and deaths are caused by borderline cases or hungover people going to work. Mostly the ones who are legitimately wasted coming back from the party at midnight to 4 a.m. The Swedish way seems like the opposite of what they should be doing, to be honest.

Most folks don't stay out into the wee hours of the morning. And with a .02 limit it's very easy to be over the limit even if you are not a heavy drinker and are off to work by 5 or 6 am. I'm not sure how the road checks are working now. I was referring the way it was back in the 90's. In any case it works very, very well here, mainly because the majority of the people have common sense.

[tube517]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FD2iPOSUUAQy8Ki?format=jpg&name=large