Getting pulled over by police is never a good feeling. Today I saw something happen that I could not believe.
My grilfriend started a new job delivering newspappers today. Since my route is not far from her route we decided to work the two together to finish earlier. Everything was going great, papers were being delivered on time, her tempary decreased basal was set, and BG was in range, or so we thought. With four blocks left to do we each took two and picked a meet up spot.
As I make my way to where we are to meet up at I see her caar swaying down the street and a police car right behind her. Upon seeing how she was driving I knew something was wrong. Then the lights from the police car came on. She pulls over. The police comes over and talks to her and goes back to his car. Now I am behind the police car thinking what is happening, what is wrong with my girlfriend?
The police come back to her car and has her get out. Thinking she is drunk he does the field sobriety test. He has her walk a straight line one way and then come back the other way. Then he does two other test. At this point his partner notices me in my car behind them and ask me what was I there for. Then I explained who I was and why I was there. I also told the police that my girlfriend is diabetic and may be having a low BG which is why she was driving the way she was and why she can't walk stright and keep her balance. But the police that was doing the field sobriety test did not want to hear it. He was so sure that my girlfriend was drunk. I kept saying just check her BG and see, if it is too low she will need to get some help. Please just let us check her BG. He said only after she do a breathalyzer can she check her BG. So she did the breathalyzer and when it showed she was not drunk then he said well you are free to go (after keeping us there for 20 minutes).
He gave me a ticket for not having a city sticker on my car. But my car is registered in a city that I don't need a city sticker for, he just had to give me a ticket because he was wrong.
When my girlfiend checked her BG it was 50. I think the police should know what low BG looks like, I mean they work with the public all the time. They should check things out even if they think they are right. I mean if he did not want to beleive me if he looked at her car she has a MedicAlert sticker on the window, and she had her meter and test strips on the front seat. I understand the need to keep people who are drunk or under the influence of alchol or drugs off the streets but if there are signs and things that show that there may be a reason for a persons actions other than alchol and drugs. There could be other reasons why a person may appear to be drunk and they are not.To make things worse the police started calling us out of our names.
Do the police think everything a person do is connected to drinking? Do they believe they have the right to talk to people any way they want? What a start to our Sunday morning. Venting before 9 AM.
as recognized as diabetes is one would think that it should be added to an id that would give police a clue that things may not be as they seem. so many pro & cons to everything these days there may be some good reasons not to have it on id.
well, im glad she’s ok. i am glad, too, that the officer pulled her over. he was a jerk, but he probably saved some lives…at the very least property damage.
Hi John, I saw this on Missy’s FB post today. Sorry this happened to you guys. Chicago cops are just a-holes. Plus you know what happens toward the end of the month -if they are down on their quota they will give out tickets to those who don’t even deserve them. Yeah, they suck.
Does Missy keep glucose tabs or some sort of snack in her car? If not, she really should just in case - and defiantely pullover and stop if you feel weird. When I moved back to IL a few months ago, and redid my license, they asked if I took any medicines or had any kind of condition that would effect my driving since I am T2 an taking Met which does cause low sugar I said know. I think they put something special on your license if you say yes right? Not sure. Does Missy have some sort of card or something she can show them?
But yes, they would rather catch people doing something wrong like being drunk - it sort of kills that whole “innocent until proven guilty” thing. First you are guity of being drunk until they can prove otherwise. I hope they at least apologized but they probably didn’t.
I think if it’s on your DMV you may have trouble getting a driver’s license. What that said I agree that cops in general are “a-holes”. I had one stop me one night because I had an old car. When I didn’t turn out to be a teenager on drugs he gave me a fix it ticket because the light bulb over my rear license plate was out. What to go!! Don’t worry about speeders or car jackers, just worry about light bulbs over license plates. rah rah rah (sorry)
All I’ve got to say here is that a few years back a friend with Type 1 was stopped by the police and put in jail for being drunk. He was lucky to not have gone into a really, really low bs while they had him locked up for hours til his wife got there to tell them what was what. You have to relize that most of the police (got a cousin who’s a deputy for Shelby county. and didn’t know what to do one time when I went low) officers don’t have to deal with lows just drunks so…That being said now I think they need to get more info on Diabetes and other things that cause this in ppl. I don’t think they get enough. My mom was a deputy for Madison Counry (here in TN) and she said they lightly touched on the subject when training her. She was so grateful that my licence had that I was a diabetic on them. She said “maybe” that would help.
Speaking as a former County deputy. The county I worked in was only concrened with Dui’s speeding and drugs. Other than that little else matters here in my county she would have been arrested for driving while impaired. Her lic and insurance would be suspended for a year her would do 48 hrs in jail. Then be order to take defensive driving course plus pay $3500. in fines and court fees. If the impairment was caused by a medical problem like low blood sugar she wouldn’t be allowed to drive unsupervised she would be ordered by the court to have a person with her anytime she was operating a motor vehicle or the judge could withhold her lic. for good.
I have seen my sister during a low. Not only frightening but, she slurred her speech, got agitated, loss control over her movements & ballance. Just all the symptons that something was seriously wrong. I called 911 & she was rushed to the hospital for further treatment & observation. Never expect anyone to understand. I would always call for an ambulance. We are the ones to be their advocate. Some people are so ignorant. I hope she is feeling better.
in the UK if you get pulled over for having a hyper or hypo behind the wheel then you can get done with dangerous driving. Thing is if you kill someone as a result of your blood sugar then whose responsibility is it? Personally I can but don’t drive because that is ultimately my responsibility. I wouldn’t get behind the wheel drunk so why would being hypo any different? Fair enough, if you can say, i’m diabetic or it’s obvi then yeah emergency services need to be called and yeah police should be trained to recognise it. But i’m sorry as a T1 if someone who was in a hyper or was near to that or hypo got behind the wheel and accidentally killed one of mine, I would hunt them down and …well…I see this as one of the biggest reasons for CGMS for all t1s
Sorry about the bad experience. Have a T1 friend who ended up in the drunk tank twice from lows. He was walking home late at night. Sweetest guy, but very belligerent when low & gave the officers a hard time, so they put him in jail overnight. He could have died.
Well, you know the expression–if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. As the others have said, the police are trained to recognize certain behaviors & not others. They were right to pull her over. They were wrong to not listen to your pleas on her behalf.
You can register a complaint with the police chief & even offer to do a workshop about diabetic lows. They probably won’t take you up on it, but worth a shot.
My daughter is a T1 and I am a T2 - what I’ve noticed is our hypos and high bg levels are the same = bad drivers. I have a rule that I don’t drive at all if I am out of range in either direction. My daughter had a baby last year and she was in a high-risk clinic. Her specialist was a T2 and he told us that many car accidents, injuries, and deaths are caused by diabetics - I just know that I have to be responsible for my own, and others, safety. Great idea about EMTs doing a possible in-service. I live in TN and there is a state protocol for EMTs - they must come to you if you call in and have a bg over 300 or 60 or below. I think it’s hard for most people to admit they’ve made a mistake, me included. Hopefully good will come from this…good discussion. DD
To all who said that she should have been pulled over I agree with you. It was for her own good. My blog was not to say that the police should not have pulled her over, but the fact that he did not want to listen to what was being told to him, for ignoring my comment that she needed medical help.
To Tom:
There was a reason why my girlfriend was unable to explain the situation and it had no thing to do with her being so impaired that she could not do it for herself. I am sure she will be on and she can tell why I was the one who had to explain the situation.
To Alan:
She always can tell when she is going low but this morning she was hypo-unaware. All of her Dex4 was in my car. She had just got her car yesterday so we had not taken it out and put it in her car yet. The good thing about our job is that we work at 1 AM and there are no kids out then, but there are other people on the road and for that she should have been more responsible.
To Gerri:
A complaint with the police chief has been made by her lawyer when he heard what happen when we went to church today. The complaint was not just about today but about this officer on another occasion with her. This same officer has caused other problems for her for no reason.
To D.D.:
She is the same not a good driver if her BG is not in range. Normally if she is not in range she will not drive and if she feels a low coming on while she is driving she will pull over but as I said to Alan she was hypo-unaware this morning.
Hope you’ll keep us posted. Great that Missy’s lawyer filed a complaint. That will hopefully get action. I live in a small town (also a college town) & we all know who the ■■■ officers are. Two were forced to resign because of community complaints of harassment.
To all here. I became hypo unaware years ago so it was safer to take that aproach. It took a few wreaks though (pretty bad ones) to come to that conclusion.
I am John S girlfriend. I will be the first to say that I should have been pulled over it was for the good of everyone on the road at the time and for me.
Alan you say I made a mistake. What mistake would that be. Would that be driving and having a low bg and not knowing that my bg was low today. I guess if I had my CGM on then I would have known but because of no insurance and no job I could not get the senseors for my CGM that I needed. I’m not sure I follow what mistake you are speaking about if you can please let me know.
Kimberly the police in Chicago are just a-holes. And I have had problelms with this officer since I was in high school. When he found out that I was going to college in N.Y. he told me that if I came back to Chicago that I will have a lot of trouble. I was harrased by him everyday. That is why I have a lawyer that I can call at anytime. So when I moved back the lawyer told me to be on the watch for him.
Tom you said: "I’m also inferring, from your story, that your GF was so impaired that she didn’t or couldn’t explain the situation?"
In reply to this I want to say I was not so impaired that I didn’t or couldn’t explain the situation. I am deaf. My means of communiting is by using sign language and I do have some voice that I can use. While trying to use my voice to explain to the officer just made him think I was drunk more.
Gerri my lawyer said that this week alone he has 6 others come to him to filed a complaint againt that officer. He is known for harassing deaf and hard of hearing drivers. I could not believe this happened I always know if I am going low but not this morning after finding out what my bg was I felt so stupid.
Six other complaints this week! This guy is going to be soon asking, “you want fries with that?” Discrimination, harassment & failing to get someone requested medical assistance.
My friend who was thrown in jail twice when hypo was going to file a suit against the police dept. He had a diabetic alert bracelet. He was walking & was charged with drunk in public & arresting arrest. All charges were dropped. The police claimed he refused a breath test, but he didn’t remember if he was offered one.
Thank you this does answer my question. I also agree with Tom that it is ultimately my responsibility to be safe when driving. That is why I test my bg before driving. In fact I had just checked it almost two hours before this happened and my bg was in my range. This should not have happened I don’t know how this hypo slipped in without notice. This has scared me so much so that I did not drive today at work I had John’s brother drive for me. I have gone back to as my doctor said ’ over testing’ today because I don’t want this to happen again. I don’t understand how this got by me.
I am behind you 100%. I know what a-holes the cops here are - I haven’t met a nice one yet! And sounds like you have one against - that is horrible. I haven’t gotten stopped and I wasn’t even doing anything wrong! But it is always your word agaisnt theirs and if they have a ticket quota to hit - they don’t care about you.
Maybe you should have John drive with you - just in case? That way if that nasty cop sees you again (I am assuming he knows your plate number), you will have someone to help you right away.
Because you are deaf, don’t you qualify for disability? If you do than I think you should be able to get into this program that the state has to help you pay for the diabetic supplies. I’ll post the link to you profile later. I couldn’t get in because I am not disabled but maybe you can. Did you check with the Chicago Deaf Association (i think that is what it is called) I think they have some help so you can get what you need?
I am hard of hearing myself - I have lost half my hearing about 7 years ago and I wear hearing aids. I can hear without out them but not very good. So I can kind of relate to you on that. It hard when you can’t hear like other people and those that have normal hearing take it for granted. People treat you differently - they don’t do that will people who have glasses!
I swear I felt the same sort of “loss” when I lost my hearing and to when I found out I had D. It is the same sort of permanent adjustment and sadness. I didn’t want to wear my hearing aids when I found out but I knew I had too - now compared to the D - it kinda takes second place but it is still a burden.
