Page 22 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • December 17, 2014 Read this and save a life On Nov. 27 at 2:15 a.m., Wyckoff Patrolman Kyle Fer- reira observed a vehicle at the intersection of Godwin Avenue and Franklin Avenue stopped for the traffic signal. The vehicle did not move during the entire green phase of the light. Patrolman Ferreira pulled up next to the car and saw that the driver appeared to be asleep with his head rest- ing on the steering wheel. Ferreira blew his car horn and turned on his siren. No response. He knocked on the door of the person’s car and reported that it took about 30 seconds for the driver to respond. The driver, a 21-year-old Wyckoff man, was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated refusal to submit to a breath test, reckless driving, and failure to observe a traf- fic signal. The incident, ludicrous as it was on the part of the driver, was a potential catastrophe that never happened thanks to Ferreira. Anybody so plastered that he falls asleep at a stop light should never have been behind the wheel of a car. Too much alcohol can kill people without the tangential involvement of a steering wheel, and this is a good time to remember that. Competitive drinking, high school sports initiations, and college hazing sometimes lead to drinking for the sake of intoxication and outright oblivion. As Wyckoff Police Chief Benjamin Fox pointed out, the result of drinking 21 shots in an hour to celebrate one’s 21st birthday could mean the person will not live to celebrate his or her 22 nd birthday. Drinking a whole bottle of distilled alcohol in one prolonged swig -- as Helmut Dantine and Henry Fonda both did while standing on a fifth-floor windowsill in the 1956 version of “War and Peace” -- can, on a bad day, be every bit as lethal as Napoleon’s artillery and musketry, and more lethal than the duel in which Fonda tripped and shot Dantine, not fatally and by mistake. Dueling, of a sort, still exists in some “urban” neighborhoods, but irresponsible drinking exists on elite college campuses and even at the illegal house parties that take place in upscale northwest Bergen County neighborhoods. Blacking out is not funny. The alcohol poisoning can be fatal. “Your friend has had too much to drink and has passed out,” Chief Fox said. “Some people may laugh at the behav- ior of others and often think it’s even funnier when some- one passes out. How can you tell if they are suffering from alcohol poisoning? If they are passed out or sleeping and cannot be awakened! Several deaths have occurred because friends of family members assumed that the victim would ‘sleep it off.’” If a person drinks too much alcohol before falling asleep, the alcohol will shut down breathing and heart functions and kill a person within a few hours. Even if a person does not die, alcohol overdose can lead to irre- versible brain damage.” Symptoms of alcohol poisoning, Fox said, include mental confusion and stupor, no response to pinching of the skin, vomiting while asleep, seizures, slow or irregular breath- ing, and hypothermia -- low body temperature, bluish skin color, or paleness. If any of these symptoms emerge, the victim’s friends or party hosts should call 911 immediately. “A quick response may save a life,” the chief added. Friends should continue to try to rouse the person and should turn him or her on one side so that the victim will not choke on his or her own vomit if the body tries to expel the alcohol while the victim is unconscious. If the victim stops breathing, someone should administer cardio-pulmo- nary resuscitation. The friends should tell the emergency responders the symptoms and the presumed amount of alcohol the victim consumed. Moderate drinking, while not a direct threat to life, can pose a menace to driving. Drinking coffee may make the person feel more alert, but will not make him or her sober. People who are in any way intoxicated should be allowed to sleep over, driven home, or sent home in a taxi. Let me cast no aspersions. One of my best friends in high school was a legendary drinker who could knock back three shots to my one and still appear sober. He had plenty of dates. He also had a number of one-punch fights. Once, when three guys picked a fight with me, he took on two of them, and let me handle the third. The three guys took one look at him, panicked, and started to beat up on each other instead of facing us. He drank and partied his way out of his first year of college, joined the U.S. Marines, won a Bronze Star with a V for Valor and a bunch of other medals in Vietnam, rev- eled in three years of Asian nightlife, and then finished Rutgers and Rutgers Business School. He admitted to me a few years ago that he eventually became a near-terminal alcoholic while he was running a family bar, and needed medical help and years of support groups to save his life. If anybody could have been tougher than booze, it was him. The fact that he was man enough to quit shows his consis- tent courage. There is an expanding circle of culpability. Parents need to keep their houses locked to outsiders when they are not home, and should refuse to serve any alcohol to minors who are not family members. The parents also need to build a world for their kids where the family is the focal point of day-to-day life and the all-important peer group is not so important that peer pressure is allowed to mandate bad behavior at the risk of ostracism. Schools need to be open fewer hours. The schools were put here to educate, not to provide 12 hours of babysitting at the taxpayers’ expense. The schools also need to introduce Jack London’s “John Barleycorn” to kids in their teens. The first author to earn $1 million by writing, London was a seaman, a newsman, and a life-long drunkard who died almost 100 years ago at the age of 40. His kidneys were destroyed by terminal alcoholism, augmented by a diet that consisted largely of half-raw meat without much bread, cheese, vegetables, or fruit. “John Barleycorn,” (1913) one of his last books, describes the social ambiance of the saloons as the source of everything from male bonding to salty, thirst-generating free lunches to odd job recruitment. The most impressive part of the book is denial. Even when London was experi- encing kidney trouble and seeing hallucinations -- the first literary mention of “pink elephants” -- he kept asserting he could quit any time he wanted to. It was always those other guys who were the alcoholics. It always is. Perhaps London’s message is inadvertent: People have to realize that when they cannot stop drinking once they start they are already alcoholics and need to stop drink- ing immediately. Most especially, they need to stop before they fumble for car keys they have a hard time finding or black out among people they cannot trust to save them from themselves. Area Police Department Reports Franklin Lakes Franklin Lakes Police Officers Denny Knubel and Fran- cis O’Brien have arrested a 28-year-old Paterson resident on an outstanding warrant emanating out of the Pequan- nock Township Municipal Court. The arrest was the result of a motor vehicle stop that took place at 10:03 p.m. on Nov. 22. As a result of a Nov. 22 motor vehicle stop, a 32-year-old Paramus woman was arrested on an outstanding warrant emanating out of the Riverdale Municipal Court. Officers William Zangara and Lucas Gallo investigated. On Nov. 24, a contractor working at a Dakota Trail construction site reported to Officer Nicholas Klein that approximately $1,000 worth of copper sheets had been stolen over the weekend. After receiving a report of an accident at the intersection of Franklin Avenue and Colonial Road at 4:52 p.m. on Nov. 24, officers arrested a 49 year-old woman from Oakland. She was charged with driving while intoxicated, breath test refusal, reckless driving, and leaving the scene of an accident. Sergeant Robert Lyon, Sergeant Mark McCombs, Officer Nicholas Klein, and Officer Gerard Gansel inves- tigated. On Dec. 6, a 32-year-old Wyckoff man was arrested fol- lowing a motor vehicle stop made at 12:23 p.m. He was charged with DWI, disorderly conduct, breath test refusal, reckless driving, and DWI operation in a school zone. Ser- geant Andrew Cacciatore, Officer Donald Wilson, Officer Francis O’Brien, and Officer Lucas Gallo investigated. On Dec. 9, a Tanglewood Court resident reported to Ser- geant Mark McCombs and Officer Dennis Hill that over- night his unlocked vehicle was entered and a number of items, totaling approximately $160, were stolen. Midland Park Midland Park police responded to a report of a motor vehicle crash at 8 p.m. on Nov. 26. As a result of the investi- gation, Officer Mark Berninger arrested a 35-year-old male resident of Midland Park for driving while intoxicated. Fol- lowing field sobriety tests, the male was transported to police headquarters for processing. The driver was issued three summonses and released with a pending court date. Sergeant Noah Van Vliet and Officers Steven Vander Pyl and Thomas Bedoe assisted. On Nov. 29, the owners of a local business told Officer Berninger that fraudulent activity occurred on their busi- ness account. They said an unknown female attempted to cash a check in the amount of $927.57 in New York City. When the teller asked the woman if she was employed at the business, her demeanor became suspicious. The teller believed the check to be fraudulent and did not allow the transaction to proceed. Detective Sergeant John Gibbons assisted in the investigation. As the result of a Dec. 2 traffic stop, Officer Berninger arrested a 32-year-old male Midland Park resident on an outstanding warrant. The warrant, in the amount of $89, was issued by the Allendale Court. The defendant was transported to police headquarters, where arrangements were made for the posting of bail. On Dec. 5, Officer Jason Tillson conducted a motor vehicle stop on a vehicle traveling on Godwin Avenue with a brake light out. In speaking with the driver, the officer smelled a strong odor of burnt marijuana emanating from within the vehicle. A subsequent investigation uncovered a small amount of marijuana and a flask containing alcohol. The driver, a 20-year-old male resident of Mahwah, was transported to police headquarters for processing. He was issued a traffic summons for maintenance of lamps, and charged with possession of narcotics and possession of an open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle. The man was given a date to appear in the Midland Park Municipal Court and released on his own recognizance. Officer Christopher Birch assisted in the investigation. On Dec. 6, an Allendale resident reported to Officer Tillson that he was the victim of a larceny. He said he was at a local physician’s office and left his wallet and coat unat- tended for a short while. After he left the office, he discov- ered $400 cash was missing from his wallet.