In our daily commute we always encounter foolish drivers- we rant and rave when someone cuts us off forcing us to slam on our breaks or when someone is so distracted that they cannot seem to stay within their own lane. But our reaction is simply to yell in our cars commenting on how the driver acts drunk- make some gestures to let the driver know of our displeasure and continue on our way. I was recently thinking about this phenomenon and wondered how many times we ignore fanatic drivers- excusing them as distracted when they are actually driving while intoxicated. And if we excuse all drunk drivers as bad drivers how many lives are we putting in jeopardy? Here is a list of 11 ways to spot a drunk driver and what action we should take to get them off the streets.
Blatant signs of intoxication

1. Floating through the lane
• Drunk drivers will swerve as they are unable to focus and have a sever impairment on their judgment of distances. This can also lead to over-correcting and cause collisions with objects near the road or other vehicles.
2. Veering off coarse
• An obvious clue that a driver is either intoxicated or falling asleep is if they are driving on the incorrect side of the road, or on the shoulder.
3. Hitting or nearly colliding with objects near the road
• Due to blurred vision, fatigue and delayed reaction time, drunk drivers sometimes collide with mail boxes, telephone poles or parked cars.
4. Center Line Hugging
• Intoxicated drivers will hug the lane divider in an attempt to avoid swerving and veering off the road.
Less-Obvious signs of an intoxicated driver
5. Making Wide Turns
• Over-doing basic maneuvers is common with drunk drivers because of the difficulty they have judging distances.
6. Driving Under the Speed Limit
• Driving more than 10mph under the speed limit can indicate a drunk driver trying to be extra cautious to avoid detection. If a driver is moving that slowly be cautious and look for other signs of intoxication.
7. Tailgating
• Tailgating can simply be attributed to an annoying and dangerous habit, but it can also be a drunk driver attempting to drive straight by imitating the vehicle in front of them. Tailgating is always unsafe, but even more so when an intoxicated person with slow reaction time is involved.
8. Excessive Breaking
• With limited ability to focus and react an intoxicated driver may break erratically and unnecessarily in an attempt to avoid a collision and a DUI.
9. Not Using Headlights
• A driver not using their headlights may be a drunk driver not functioning well enough to even use their vehicle properly.
10. Inappropriate signaling-
• A drunk driver may use their left hand signal when making a right hand turn.
11. Stopping For No Reason
• Stopping at a green light, an intersection without a stop sign or an empty crosswalk can show that a driver is not sober.
I am sure you have encountered the signs above as well as I have and ignored them- attributing them to a bad driver and simply drove around them. When you witness these signs you should watch for other signs of inebriation- stay behind them at a safe distance and contact the police so they may get the driver off the roads. If we all do our part to catch drunk drivers the safer our roads will be.