Lithuanian police were so astonished when they pulled over a truck driver and his breathalyzer test registered 18 times the legal alcohol limit, they thought their testing device must be broken.

It wasn't.

Police said Tuesday 41-year-old Vidmantas Sungaila registered 727 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliters of blood repeatedly on different devices when he was pulled over for driving his truck down the center of a two-lane highway 60 miles from the capital, Vilnius on Saturday.

Lithuania's legal limit is 40 milligrams of alcohol in 100 milliliters of blood.

"This guy should have been lying dead, but he was still driving. It must be an unofficial national record," Saulius Skvernelis, the director of the national police traffic control service, told the AP. "He was of high spirits and grinning the whole time he was questioned."

Medical experts say anything above 3.5 grams per liter of alcohol in the blood is lethal for most people.

"A person this intoxicated should be in an intensive care unit, not behind the wheel," said Tautvydas Zikaras, head of the dependence illness center in the country's second-largest city, Kaunas. Zikaras said he had never heard or read of someone being so drunk.

Sungaila, who was slapped with a 3,000 litas ($1,110) fine and the loss of his license for up to three years, told police he had been drinking the night before and tried to freshen up by downing a pint of beer for breakfast.

Lithuania has one of the worst road safety records in the European Union. Last year, 760 people died in traffic accidents in this country of 3.5 million residents. Most were alcohol-related.

Definitely not the average drunk; like the story says not only was this guy 18 times over the limit, but if you look at his blood alcohol level and compare it to the level given in the article by medical experts as being lethal for most people, his blood alcohol level was more than twice that given level.

Submitted on 05/24/2006

Submitted by: Benjamin Kabaker
Reference: Associated Press, 5/24/06

Copyright © 2006 DarwinAwards.com

James said:
Maybe Toss: Too Common
While it is pretty amazing that this mook is still alive where others would have killed AND embalmed themselves with all that booze, alcohol-related stories are too common in and of themselves for award consideration. Apparently, this trucker was functional even though his veins had more hooch than blood in them. Maybe my fellow mods may disagree, but I think it's more a matter of individual tolerance and coincidence. Thanks for submitting, Benjamin!

Greg said:
Neutral: Honorable Mention
I don't know - the sheer volume of alcohol makes me think this is a cut above - it was emailed to me by a friend, acually... I'll go Neutral.

Jorge said:
Neutral: Honorable Mention

Fitzroy said:
Neutral: Honorable Mention
On the one hand, that is truly remarkable. That guy must have had HUGE tolerance -- I mean to the point of being headed toward organ failure even, to be able to get and keep that much alcohol in his system. On the other hand, it is just a drunk driving story. Yet, since it might better be terms a DRUNK driving story, I cannot deny some potential.

Jack said:
Neutral: Honorable Mention
The sheer amount of alcohol in the guy's blood and the fact that he was still able to walk and talk takes this out of the run-of-the mill drunk driving stories!

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