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Vanpool driver charged with DUI stopped while carrying passengers on Interstate 95 in Stafford Date published: 8/24/2010
By KELLY HANNON A commuter vanpool bound for Spotsylvania County made an unscheduled stop along Interstate 95 southbound Friday afternoon when the van's driver was pulled over by Virginia State Police and charged with drunken driving. Eight passengers were riding in the commuter van, said Sgt. F.L. Tyler, Virginia State Police spokesman. The van had collected passengers in downtown Washington and Rosslyn after work and was traveling to a commuter lot at Gordon Road and State Route 3. A caller contacted state police around 5:45 p.m. to report a commuter van on I-95 southbound operated by a driver possibly under the influence, Tyler said. A state trooper already in the area spotted the van and followed it for approximately one mile, and observed the vehicle weaving, Tyler said. Based on the driver's behavior, the trooper stopped the van, Tyler said. The van was stopped on the right side of I-95 about one mile south of the Aquia/Garrisonville Road interchange in Stafford. William Blaine Larimer, 57, of Spotsylvania, was charged with driving under the influence-second offense, failure to take a blood or breath test and failure to obey highway markers, Tyler said. The van, a 2006 Ford, is owned by Commuter Express Inc. in Stafford, Tyler said. Commuter Express owner Dan Fields said Larimer will no longer drive any of his company's vanpools. Fields said Larimer is not a company employee. Like all of the vanpool drivers on the routes, drivers are vanpool riders who volunteer to occasionally drive, Fields said. That is the case throughout the vanpool industry, Fields said. Fields did not know if Larimer received a fare discount for driving. His company's insurer, Lancer Insurance, runs a background check on all potential vanpool drivers before they can begin driving, Fields said. About 1 in 10 drivers are denied based on this check, he said. In addition, Fields encourages vanpool passengers to report any concerns anonymously about driver behavior, such as speeding or reckless driving. Fields said. He has removed drivers from driving vanpool routes before over passenger concerns, but said he had never had a complaint about Larimer. Fields said his insurance company also failed to report Larimer's previous DUI charge, and that he was unaware of it. Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436
Wait a minute. What does the question of whether Larimer received a fare discount for driving or not have anything to do with his driving DUI?
Someone driving DUI on 95 during rush hour has got to be out of their mind.
Worse than his driving drunk, I hear he doesn't recycle either. That's right, he throws his platic bottles in the tra[*#@!]
Seriously, though. A lot of the comments about vans is unwarranted. Vans have probably the best track records for safety on the road.
Yet again we read about another drunk driver on our roadways this time with eight passengers. The service should be more diligent in checking whom drives his vehicles. I am sure this incident will be like the other a slap on the wrist and if by some chance he loses his license he will most likely still drive and when he gets caught driving on a suspended he will once again get a slap on the wrist. For every drunk driver that is caught there are hundreds more out there because they keep letting them go.
I know what your saying is true about all the drivers out there but I'm talking about the van pool drivers only. Most all have a name and number on the side of them yet they drive like they don't care about that little tidbit. They also have 8+ passengers' lives in their hands yet they still drive as if it's their personal race car. The passengers need to start taking some initiative to stop the maniac one's or the rest of us need to start calling each time we see one driving like that.
wasn't meant to take place on I-95...
why I don't carpool.
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