My commute home from work was...interesting...on Tuesday.
I’d gotten off at 9:30 PM and was driving back on I-57 southbound just south of Monee (Chicago Oppos will understand). I was in the left lane cruising along, passing your typical gaggle of truckers when I came upon a pickup without lights on doing 55 or so in a 70, in the left lane. I flashed my lights off and on as a way of telling them to turn theirs on, but as I’m doing this, I noticed them drifting in and out of their lane quite severely. After about 30 seconds of following them, I decide it’s more than just a distracted driver. I had been talking to my girlfriend on the phone and told her that I needed to call her back, as I needed to call the cops. I called 911, told them there was an impaired driver on I57 South near Peotone and they said they’d send a trooper out. By this point, I was just following the truck with my hazards on. Anyone who was daring to pass would get run off the road or nearly sideswiped. After several miles or so of doing between 30 and 60, I eventually came to a turn in the highway and got a chance to look behind and see a line of traffic that extended in excess of a mile. I call the police again, as it’d been about 15 minutes and there was no sign of a trooper (which was unusual considering this stretch always has cops nearby). They informed me they were stuck in the traffic and were trying to get there. After a few more miles, the truck took the same exit as me, so I continued following them, while also calling the police again to inform them the driver was no longer on the highway, so local police could respond too. And I knew the town we were in and I know an officer is never more than 2 minutes away (the police presence here is ridiculous, but also justified considering how bad the town just south is). The truck and I were in the left turn lane, about to turn of Rt 50, when I notice the trooper in the right turn lane. They notice me with my hazards on and the truck in front of me, so when we get a green arrow, the cops were waiting to get behind the truck. We turn right into a parking frontage road and as we make a sweeping turn, the truck goes into oncoming lanes completely. It was at this point the trooper lit the truck up and we pulled into a Moe’s parking lot. Within 30 seconds, 2 city police and 1 sheriff are there. I wait in my car, watching the whole thing. He was so completely hammered that it took 3 officers to get the guy out of the truck and into the squad car. He also thought he was in Joliet, which is 45 minutes northwest of here. The officers thanked my for calling him in and for following him and I showed them my video. The trooper had a rookie with him and the trooper was visibly excited to show the rookie how they deal with DUIs. No one was expecting to get a drunk driver on a Tuesday night (especially me!).
Definitely a unique reason to be an hour late from work.
Thankfully, no one was hit or injured. Drinking and driving is not cool.