Drunk Zamboni Man Couldn't Hit Blue Line

MONTREAL - A judge has fined a Victoriaville, Que., man $1,350 and suspended his driver's licence for a year after the man pleaded guilty this week to driving a Zamboni with four times the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

Police were called to Pavillon Jean-Beliveau last Oct. 9 after spectators at a hockey match became alarmed by the erratic conduct of Lionel Laquerre, a municipal employee, at the wheel of the ice-resurfacing machine.

"They had noticed that the driver smelled of alcohol and that he was making manoeuvres described as dangerous on the rink," Jean-Francois Royer, a Victoriaville prosecutor familiar with the file, said yesterday. "He was running into the boards, he was turning in circles. He was not cleaning the ice like you would normally expect it to be done."

Police officers surmised Mr. Laquerre was in an advanced state of inebriation, but before placing him under arrest they checked with a lawyer to make sure impaired Zamboni driving is a crime.

"It's not every day the police are confronted with drunk Zamboni drivers," Mr. Royer said.

They were advised that a Zamboni is considered a motor vehicle under the Criminal Code, and they took Mr. Laquerre to the police station. A blood-alcohol test found he had 314 milligrams of alcohol for 100 millilitres of blood, nearly four times the legal limit of 80 mg.

"Higher than that and there's a danger of coma," said Mr. Royer, whose colleague Gerald Milot handled the case but was not available for comment yesterday.

Quebec Court Judge Gilles Bergeron heard that Mr. Laquerre, 56, has since lost his job with the city and has not had a drink since being arrested. Under an agreement with the Crown, Mr. Laquerre pleaded guilty to one charge involving the Zamboni. He had also been charged with refusing to take a Breathalyzer after he was found behind the wheel of his car the same night, but those charges were dropped.

Mr. Royer said it was the first case of impaired Zamboni driving he had come across in nearly 20 years of practice. "It's typically Canuck," he said.

He blew .314. Wow. He should be in the BadJocks DUI Hall of Fame.

Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) Rankings

Welcome to the BadJocks BAC Rankings How does a young college star, pulled over for his first DUI compare to some of the all time greats? How "good" is a BAC of .25% anyway? Well, now you have a way to compare your favorite drunken athlete with others who have gone before him. Below is a list of alleged public drunks or drunk drivers from the sports world. If you are aware of any that aren't listed here please and be sure to put "BAC Rankings" in the subject line. Before you dash off that e-mail message though, we have established several guidelines to be part of this ranking; The person must be a national athlete or affiliated in some way with sports. Reported BAC levels must be able to be verified in a legitimate news source. Current website links are preferred. No minors, please. (That's under 18, even though the legal drinking age is 21.) Contestants must not have killed or seriously injured themselves, or others, in the process.
Current Rank	Name	Sport or Affiliation	Date of Incident	Reported BAC*	Special Note
1 - NEW!!!!	Carly Cross	Field Hockey Player for Frostburg State U.	December 3, 2004	0.365%	Although Cross was ticketed for underage drinking, she and several other victims claim to have been forced to drink liquor and beer as part of a "Christmas buddy" party by other upper-class members of the field hockey team during a bizarre hazing ritual.
2	Andrew Pointon	Professional Golfer	May 7, 2002	0.36%	He's reported as having four and a half times the UK legal limit when arrested for DUI.
3	Lary Sorensen	Former Detroit Tigers broadcaster	October 16, 1999	0.35%	While out on bail for this DUI arrest, he was pulled over again and blew a 0.24%. (See below)
T4	Lary Sorensen	Former Detroit Tigers broadcaster	October 30, 2004	0.31%	His 6th DUI arrest and a probation violation, Lary could go to prison for this one.
T4	Bob Probert	NHL star	July 15, 1994	0.31%	In addition to DUI, cops also suspect he had cocaine in his system when he wrecked his motorcycle!
T4	JaRon Rush	Former UCLA basketball player	May 21, 2002	0.31%	With a BAC over.30, he had to taken to the hospital.
5	Lynn Miernicki	Curling fan	Dec. 21, 2000	0.30%	His family is suing because he fell down a flight of stairs at a curling club and claims the place should have stopped serving he before he had 20 to 25 bottles of beers!
6	Brandon L. Hefflin	U of Toledo football player	January 19, 2003	0.28%	Arrested at a bar, he was taken to a hospital where he threw a portable urinal at an officer and tried to flee police.
7	Debbie Rahal	Wife of Indy champ Bobby Rahal	July 10, 1999	0.27%	According to the Columbus Dispatch, she had her kids in the car with her at the time of her DUI arrest. (Submitted by David K. Singh)
8	Jim McMahon	Former Bears Quarterback	November 9, 2003	0.261%	During the DUI sobriety test, reportedly told officers, 'I'm too drunk. You got me.'"
T9	Unnamed Racine, Wisconsin Drunk	Miniature Golfer	October 3, 2004	0.26%	A 19-year-old Racine man and his friend were arrested Oct. 3 on allegations of underage drinking and disorderly conduct after they stole a bucket of golf balls from Mulligan's Mini Golf, threw the balls at each other and then used their golf clubs as swords and "fenced." A breath test showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.26 for the Racine man and 0.17 for his friend. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
T9	John Abraham	New York Jets defensive lineman	October 1, 2003	0.26%	He plead guilty to the lesser charge of driving while impaired and avoided the jail time he could have faced if convicted of DUI.
T9	Ingrida Sabonis	Wife of former Blazers’ center Arvydas Sabonis	December 2000	0.26%	Her second DUI offense in less than a year, her BAC in the first arrest was only 0.23%, but she was on the way to pick up the kids from school.
10	Reginald "Reggie" M. Wilson	Assistant football coach for the Easton Area High School, in PA	September 2004	0.25%	Coach Wilson was on the sidelines the same night he was arrested about an hour and 25 minutes after the game was over.
11	Michael Schilling	HS girls basketball coach	August 2003	0.247%	In addition to DUI, he was also charged with one count each of marked lanes and seat belt violations.
11	Bernard Gilkey	Former Atlanta Braves outfielder	October 2000	0.247%	Got jail time for being a persistent drunk driver.
T12	Mitch Ohnstad	Minnesota's Mr. Basketball - 1996	February 2005	0.24%	A two-season letter winner for the Minnesota Gophers in 1998-2000, Mitch was arrested for drunken driving in Lakeville on Feb. 27. It was his third DWI-type offense since March 1999.
T12	Lary Sorensen	Former Detroit Tigers broadcaster	November, 1999	0.24%	Lary was out on bail for an earlier DUI arrest where he blew an even more impressive 0.35% BAC when he was arrested for this DUI.
T12	Clark Haggans	Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker	June 21, 2003	0.24%	Haggans was arrested for DUI in the north-Denver suburb of Federal Heights after police said there was a confrontation passengers in two vehicles.
T12	Jon Garrido	High school football fan	September 2003	0.24%	18-year-old fan ran onto field and hit coach and several players with a stick
T12	Charles Woodson	Oakland Raiders DB	May, 2000	0.24%	Arrested during own charity golf tournament
13	Jeff Garcia	SF 49ers QB	January 2004	0.237%	DUI arrest occured when he was leaving the campus of San Jose State University and forced to give field sobriety test in a Jack-in-the-Box parking lot.
14	James Beattie	British Soccer Player	September, 2002	0.233%	Had a designated driver but decided to move car anyway.
T15	Dennis Erickson	Former Seattle Seahawks Coach	April, 1985	0.23%	Thanks to the Jim Rome Show and The Smoking Gun for their assistance.
T15	Joe Bernard	Fairfield University Football Coach	November 22, 2001	0.23%	Crashed his car into five parked cars Thanksgiving Day before being arrested for DUI.
T15	Ed Podolak	Former Iowa football star current(?) radio broadcaster	September, 1997	0.23%	(Tip from Phillip Luebke)

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