Man Crashes While "Huffing"
Do you ever watch one of those drug or alcohol rehabilitation shows that are seemingly everywhere on cable television and think “That really looks fun, I’d like to try it?” Despite the focus that such shows generally place on the perils of drug abuse, a Kentucky man recently decided that “huffing” looked so fun when he saw it on a popular television show that he wanted to give it a whirl. “Huffing” is a slang term that signifies a form of inhalant abuse in which a person inhales some substance in order to alter his or her mental state. A myriad of substances can be used for such activity including paint thinner, gasoline, glue, spray paint, various gases, and household cleaning products. The man in this scenario was huffing what was described as “a can of air” when he hit the barrier on Interstate 64 and caused his truck to flip. Luckily, he suffered only minor injuries and his female passenger was not hurt.
Previous blog articles have shown that DUI is a very common source of negligence that causes roadway accidents and imposes liability upon the driver at fault for the damages sustained by victims of the accident. Although huffing is a less common method of ingesting an intoxicant than is drinking alcohol or smoking marijuana, it still comprises the use of an intoxicant and can lead to driving under the influence.
As this example shows, huffing is also one of those forms of substance abuse that can lead to negligent driving even before the intoxicant begins to affect the driver’s system. In this example, the man was in the actual act of huffing the can of air when he hit the median and flipped his truck, which means that he may not have even inhaled the substance when the wreck occurred but rather may have been diverting his attention from the road in order to effectively inhale the substance.
Failing to keep a proper lookout or being distracted while driving constitutes negligence just as effectively as does driving under the influence. Clearly, diverting ones attention from the road in order to inhale an intoxicant is not a reasonable driving maneuver. In this case, such a maneuver may have led the man to crash his truck, meaning he would have been liable had any victims suffered damages or injuries as a result of his decision.
