A blind journalist received a DUI and a month’s suspended jail sentence after he got drunk and decided he really wanted to experience being behind the wheel of a car, AFP reported Friday.
The unidentified Frenchman was also fined $750 Friday for driving drunk without a license.
Police spotted a car veering around a French country road early in the morning on July 25. They found the owner of the car, who was also drunk, riding in the passenger seat. He received the same sentence as the driver, and had his license suspended for five months by the court in the northeastern town of Nancy, AFP reported.
The 29-year-old driver of the car shocked police when he told them he was blind, and even more so when he and his 52-year-old passenger blew breathalyzer levels twice the legal limit.
"I really wanted to do it (drive the car)," AFP reports the blind man told the court. "I expressed this wish. He (the owner of the car) agreed."
The owner said he saw "a lot of happiness emanating from him" as he drove, adding that he had "one hand on the handbrake and one hand on the steering wheel" as the blind journalist drove.
"I was very concentrated on the road," he said.
The judge said his level of intoxication did not make him a “very reliable monitor.”
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