Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Bike wobbles as 6-pack dangles

Buds on the handlebars? Cops charge him with DUI.

By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
Published October 10, 2007

The first thing the cop noticed was the guy on a bicycle weaving from lane to lane on 66th Street N.

The next thing the officer noticed, after pulling the bicyclist over, was the six-pack of 12-ounce Budweisers dangling from the handlebars.

The officer called in Eric Schroeder, one of Pinellas Park's police officers who specializes in detecting whether folks are impaired by drugs or alcohol.

Schroeder did not have to work hard in the case of the bicyclist who can be seen on videotape falling down during one phase of the sobriety test. Schroeder said in his report that he did not force the bicyclist to balance on one leg "in order to prevent injury ... by him falling."

Schroeder cited Thomas M. Brannick, 45, with felony driving under the influence. Schroeder also charged him with refusing to take a Breathalyzer test.

Brannick has been convicted of DUI at least four times in the past, according to Pinellas County jail records. This latest DUI charge is valid because the law counts a bicycle as a vehicle, Pinellas Park police Capt. Mike Haworth said.

Haworth said Pinellas Park officers have charged bicyclists with DUI many times.

Bicycles are not the oddest vehicle to carry someone stopped for suspicion of drunken driving in Pinellas Park. That distinction would likely go to the airboat that was being driven down a street in the northern section of the city with sparks flying. The street was not flooded at the time.

The driver, who was celebrating his birthday refused to take a blood alcohol test.

"I think we seized the airboat, too, if I recall," Haworth said.

Considering Pinellas Park is one of the few places in the county where horses can be found, it might be noteworthy that - so far, at least - there have been no instances of RUI, or riding under the influence.

Haworth said he wasn't even sure if that would be an offense. "I think the statute just talks about motor vehicles," he said. "I don't think it would be DUI on a horse.

"I just think we'd tell them (that), probably for your health, you probably want to get off Trigger."

[Last modified October 9, 2007, 23:21:45]