Posted 8 months, 27 days ago in 
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This is in response to the Feb. 26 article in The Daily Sentinel, “No signs of intoxication.”
Are you stinking kidding me? How can anyone with a blood-alcohol level of 0.195 percent — twice the legal limit — not show signs of being intoxicated?
Sounds like Fruita Police Department officials are trying to cover their butts. The officers who pulled Samantha over should find a different line of work. If they couldn’t see the signs or smell the smell, then it is pretty obvious they are in the wrong profession.
They could have saved this young life. Instead they will have to live with the fact they she died way before her time.
LINDA SIMMS
Grand Junction
10 Responses to “Fruita police officers could have saved girl’s life”
Posted February 26th, 2009 at 6:10 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Don’t blame the police. Samantha is responsible for her own death! In addition to her, family members and friends who said the next day she had a drinking problem are the guilty ones. Who provided her the alcohol? If she hadn’t killed her self this time at the age of 18, who would she have killed the next time.
Posted February 26th, 2009 at 7:33 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
I agree GEP. Also, I sometimes have no idea that my wife has been drinking when she’s fully intoxicated, she doesn’t slur, stagger or demonstrate anything that would indicate that she’s drunk.
Posted February 26th, 2009 at 7:40 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
The letter writer apparently does not understand the difference between being “legally drunk” and “physically drunk.” Had she more exposure to drinkers she may have realized that some individuals may not show physical symptoms until well beyond the “legal limit.” That does not mean that their judgment is not impaired, merely that one cannot tell that they are intoxicated if we observe only their physical behavior.
Some of us have known individuals who, after a single drink, begin acting eratically. Others, after 3 or 4, appear as normal as everyone else. So, let us not too quickly and automatically blame law enforcement.
Posted February 26th, 2009 at 8:33 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
My heart goes out to Sam’s family-I had a friend experience something very similar not too long ago and the pain never goes away-neither does the second guessing. Everyone involved will second guess themselves the rest of their lives. They don’t need any help from the Linda’s of the world. I sense a hidden agenda in Ms Simms letter.
Posted February 26th, 2009 at 8:52 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
RLaitres
In 100% agreement with you. Let’s not be too hasty to judge unless you were there. Good points, some and drink one and can not function, others can have six drinks and function fine.
Posted February 27th, 2009 at 9:12 am Login to Send PM Report this comment
Let me know if I am wrong, but I have heard that if you drink a lot of alcohol and immediately take a breathalizer test, or even wait a short amount of time, it will show up as a low number. If you wait a few hours, it will show a hire level because you then have more in your blood stream. If this is true, that could also explain some of the problem.
Posted February 28th, 2009 at 3:11 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
What happened was very sad. As a former police officer, I had similar situations where I missed signs of intoxication. Police officers do the best they can and rely on training and experience and besides what some may think officers hold themselves to higher standards and DO NOT cover up mistakes. Instead of blaming those officers, consider the fact that Samantha made a poor choice and unfortunately died because of it. This situation will affect those officers enough, please stop pointing the finger at them. Of course we all hope that children and teenagers grow to live productive lives. This is a very tragic situation but it is not the officers fault that she drove intoxicated and ended up dying because of it.
kakuni1977 - breath tests will come up with different results as the alcohol is absorbed by peoples bodies. They will read higher if the person has just consumed alcohol because the alcohol would be heavy in their mouth. There are very specific guidelines that have to be followed to get an accurate reading using a breath test machine. A portable breath test only shows that they have consumed alcohol.
Posted February 28th, 2009 at 7:52 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Thanks Jeff, and I agree. People are responsible for their own reactions. The police are definately not to blame for other people’s stupid decisions.
Posted March 1st, 2009 at 9:41 am Login to Send PM Report this comment
That wreck on North and fifth is really sad to me, because the owner of that white and orange pickup moved into an apartment in the same house that I was living in acouple of years ago. I moved to a new place just a month or so after he moved in, and although i never really talked to the guy, hea was always very pleasant, and he was really proud of that pickup, keeping it spotlessly clean and driving slowly and carefully through the neighborhood. I have seen him and his pickup around town every few days since, and unlike many drivers here, he was never driving agressively or too fast, and it warmed my heart knowing he felt like a king in his castle driving around in his pickup. It really bummed me out to see his hard work and devotion wiped out by a punk kid driving like an ahole. My heart goes out to him and his family and the families of the people killed.
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there is something about this area that breeds irresponsible drivers–a car culture that looks the other way when somebody is going too fast or cutting people off or running stops. I drive around here constantly for my job, and I’ve driven professionally all over the front range, mostly in denver, and drivers here in Junction are far and away the worst I’ve ever seen.
Posted March 2nd, 2009 at 11:38 am Login to Send PM Report this comment
I am seriously worried about the future of this world.
Instead of taking the blame for the fall and putting responsibility where it belongs, we try as hard as we can to put it on someone else.
The loss of sammantha is awful and unessecary, but was ultimately her fault.
Her poor choices led to her death.
What lesson are we teaching our children when we’re blaming the police department for her poor choices?
“It’s ok, make all of the mistakes you can. Surely theres someone along the way we can blame for it”.
It’s disgusting.
Sammy’s death should have given our community a lesson in self discipline, but apparently NOTHING will change the minds of the stubborn.
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