DUI Craziness

It’s a little harder to escape from the police if you are on foot and have a 4 year old with you. So – what to do? Why not try to throw him over the fence?

Nikki Settle, 25, drank too much alcohol. Then, since her brain was impaired and not functioning correctly, she convinced herself that she wasn’t impaired, and decided to drive over near Spartanburg. Maybe she just wanted to go home, who knows? In any case, it doesn’t matter what the reason for driving was – she shouldn’t have done it when under in the influence, and not with a suspended license either.

Around 10 pm on September 28, 2011 she was attempting to drive her 2009 white Lexus but was doing so in a very erratic manner. Her car crashed into a median barrier on the interstate highway about 95 miles from Columbia. She didn’t want to be caught and given a DUI, so she took her son and tried to escape. They went over the barrier and crossed the highway. They reached a ten foot high fence and she tried to throw her son over the fence. Now if her lowered brain capacity wasn’t evident previously, it sure should have been at this point. Most people would have great difficulty tossing even ten pounds over such a high fence, let alone the 40 or so that her son must have weighed.

There were two witnesses who saw the entire event unfold, who talked her into going back to the scene of the accident and ceasing to try to toss her 4 year old over the fence. The child, who was not hurt, was later turned over to his grandmother.

Settle was charged with driving under the influence, driving with a suspended license and child endangerment. She posted bail but was banned from driving and ordered to wear and alcohol and drug monitor.

One can only hope that this will be a wake-up call for this mother, if her freedom and her son can become more important in her life than her alcohol has been.