I am currently in Delaware, on the way south from my place to DC. Been on the road maybe 90 minutes. Twice in that time I have found myself following obviously drunk drivers. They were weaving dangerously between all three lanes of the highway. They were slowing down and speeding up randomly. They almost ran off the road a few times.

I just stayed back and kept my distance, but several people who passed them were almost hit as they went by and the drunk drivers swerved when they realized someone was near. This is not something you want to see. These people were clearly a menace to themselves, and everyone on the road.

As it was, I just hung back a few miles at a safe distance until these yahoos exited on their own. (One of them quite nearly took out the exit sign as they were leaving the highway.) But the longer they were in front of me the more I was tempted to call the cops on them. I probably should have.

But what is the “proper” course of action in this sort of situation? Call 911 on the cell? Or is in not enough of an emergency to do that? Or just wait for a safe moment and speed by the drunks as fast as possible to get around them and away from them? I guess that is the normal thing that people do. But I can’t help but feel that when people are clearly endangering others, it is almost a duty to report them. Is 911 the way to go?

Anyway, stopping at the Deleware House for a little caffene and rest before continuing on to DC. Hopefully I won’t encounter any more drunks this time around. I do this drive at this time of day and week fairly frequently, and have only seen such obviously impaired drivers a handful of times. But two in one night got my attention. I didn’t call in, but I hope the cops got them. Or at the very least that they got home safely without killing or maiming anyone.

[Note: I originally wrote almost all of this on the Treo, but then hit the wrong button and erased everything I had written… so rather than do that on the thumboard again I hooked up the laptop for a few minutes. Also cool I guess. But not quite as much so as typing the whole post on the phone. :-)]