There’s nothing quite like a good wacky news story on a Friday and we have to thank Timmins, Canada city employee Richard Page for providing the fodder. Richard, who had been in the employ of the city for more than two decades as a as equipment operator among other things, was stopped while speeding down the road in a backhoe. The problem is that Page was stewed and drinking vodka out of a thermos when police questioned him. Understandably, the judge wasn’t all that sympathetic to Page when the two met up in court. Nor should he have been. We don’t know the specifics of the backhoe Page was driving (it was NOT the one shown below), but virtually any backhoe/front end loader machine could cause catastrophic levels of damage to life, limb, and property if crashed. There’s no such thing as a fender bender with a loader. You’re tearing some stuff UP. Also, the fact he was speeding has our interest piqued. No speed was listed in the story and no speed limit was given in the area he was stopped.
Page’s blood alcohol was a full three times the legal limit, which in layman’s terms means that he was EFFING WASTED. The happy ending here is that Page lost his job, had his license revoked, and has to spend 30 days in the Canadian klink. The scary part is considering just how long this was going on. We don’t think you start at thermos full of vodka (unless you are in Russia). That’s a deal you work up to.
DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE – BACKHOES, CARS, TRUCKS, HOVERCRAFTS, OR PLANES!
Link: City Worker Fired After Driving Backhoe Drunk
Up to three thermos’s a day myself.
I used to work in a window assembly plant and the guy next to me used to mix alchohol with his Pepsi everyday. Some days he was pretty plastered by lunch time. Good thing was he only ran a screw gun, so the only person he put in harms way was himself. He didn’t drive either. He was one of those old drunks who was a mean SOB unless he was drunk, so it was better if he was drunk at work in our eyes…
Musta been a JCB.
Maybe he was down to a thermos a day.
Once new a guy that we didn’t know had a drinking problem until he came home sober one night and hit his garage trying to park his car.