Bruce Springsteen, a musician, was arrested last November for DWI, news that came out only this week and prompted Jeep to show its Super Bowl ad featuring The BossThis seems like a pretty short-sighted story, except it isn’t.
Take the Asbury Park Press’s for example report As of yesterday, Springsteen’s blood alcohol level was 0.02, which is well below New Jersey’s 0.08 limit.
New Jersey rock icon Bruce Springsteen’s blood alcohol content was 0.02 – just a quarter of the New Jersey legal limit – when he was arrested at Sandy Hook in November and charged with drunk driving, a source familiar with the case to the Asbury Park Press.
The legal drunkenness threshold for driving in New Jersey is 0.08, raising the question of why Springsteen was even charged with drunk driving, the source said.
That was a bit huh, and then yesterday the “offense” was released, and it was more like “huh.” Here is the full statement from the arresting officer. Springsteen was stopped on a red-silver Triumph.
While patrolling on foot, I saw a male (Bruce F. SPRINGSTEEN) consume a shot of Patron tequila and then get on his motorcycle and start the engine. I contacted SPRINGSTEEN and told him alcohol is prohibited at Sandy Hook. The Patron bottle from which the shot was poured was completely empty (750 ml). I asked SPRINGSTEEN if he was leaving and he confirmed that he would drive out of the park. SPRINGSTEEN claimed he’d had two shots of tequila in the past 20 minutes. SPRINGSTEEN smelled strongly of alcohol coming from his person and had glassy eyes. I ran SPRINGSTEEN through standardized field sobriety tests. I observed four of the six cues on the horizontal gaze nystagmus test. SPRINGSTEEN swayed visibly from side to side as I watched his eyes. I observed five of the eight cues during the walk and turn test. SPRINGSTEEN took a total of 45 steps while walking and turning in place of the instructed 18. SPRINGSTEEN refused to provide a sample on the preliminary breath test.
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That all sounds a bit devastating! Except then you remember that figure of 0.02, which, if true, must come from a later test. The New York Times too spoke to a lawyer which, in my mind, gave the most likely explanation of what happened:
Even if a blood alcohol level is below the legal limit, it’s not uncommon for a person to be charged with drunk driving based on an officer’s observation during a three-part sobriety test, according to Carmine R. attorney with 30 years of experience in DWI cases.
“Everything is done as a whole,” said Mr Villani, who is not involved in Mr Springsteen’s case. Maybe he had alcohol on his breath. Then he may not pass every aspect of the test. It is designed to confuse people. It’s a divided attention test. It’s a stressful event, and often people don’t get it right. “
But when the blood alcohol level is eventually well below 0.08 percent, the cases are often easy to resolve, Mr Villani said.
“With a .02 it shouldn’t move the heart – you shouldn’t be nervous,” he said. ‘On a .02, science just isn’t there. Someone is just not disabled. “
This all stemmed from Springsteen’s stopping to speak to a fan, the New York Times, and I can now better understand why Springsteen went ahead with the Jeep ad and seemingly living like normal if people had assured him that registering a 0.02 would not really be a problem.
Needless to say, taking a shot of tequila (or two) before motorcycling isn’t optimal, nor is drinking on federal property where drinking isn’t allowed, but most of all, this story is just very Bruce Springsteen. Tramps like us, baby, we were born to run.