ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 31, 1996 TAG: 9612310078
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
Deputy Johnny Puckett has sent 64 people to court on drunken driving charges in the last four years. Only two cases ended without guilty verdicts and one of those never made it to court because the suspect committed suicide.
Puckett, a Montgomery County sheriff's deputy, is just one of many New River Valley officers who will be on patrol tonight, keeping watch for the New Year's Eve partygoer who made the wrong choice and got behind the wheel after having too much to drink.
Puckett said his 97 percent DUI conviction rate has won him awards and praise. But the most touching reward, Puckett said, was a letter that arrived two years after he arrested a local woman for drunken driving.
The letter begins: "I do not know if you remember me or not, but I think of you every day. On June 25, 1994, you saved my life."
The woman, who asked not to be named for this article, credited Puckett with getting her off the road after she left a party too drunk to realize much of anything about her surroundings.
"You saved my life and many others too," she wrote.
Catching drunken drivers is not usually a job that ends in a thank you, but it's one that all departments realize is necessary as holiday parties increase the number of drunken drivers on the roads. Many New River Valley police departments step up their efforts in response. Some local law enforcement officials said they will have New Year's Eve DUI checkpoints to screen drivers.
The case of the thankful DUI arrestee started with simple observation.
"All four tires were flat and she was still trying to drive [her car]," Puckett said.
Puckett said he pulled the woman over and as he approached her car she rolled down her window and said, "I'm glad to see you, my car won't go."
After Puckett toured the woman around her car, she was so intoxicated she still couldn't recognize the flat tires as the problem. He said the woman had run over a street sign and into a concrete barrier and the sign apparently broke the seals on all the tires.
"She didn't give me any hassle, but she failed all the [field sobriety] tests flat," Puckett said.
Once the woman sobered up, she realized the gravity of her mistake. Puckett said he met her again in court and was told she wanted to talk to him after a judge found her guilty. The meeting was brief, but long enough for the woman to hug Puckett and tell him "thank you" for what he had done.
Two years later the woman sent the letter. In it, she invited Puckett to her college graduation, a completed goal that she credited Puckett for helping her achieve.
"I will never forget you. You are why I am here today," she wrote. "You are my hero whether you knew it or not. Now you do."
In her letter, the woman said she will never drive after drinking and will never let friends make the mistake she did.
Puckett backs that up: if you drink any alcohol at all, don't get behind the wheel.
Many people feel safe waiting one hour for each drink consumed before driving. Puckett said he does not recommend following that rule. He said so many factors are at work when a person drinks that each is affected at a different rate.
The letter, which brought tears to his wife's eyes, touched the nine-year deputy, too.
"You don't get a lot of gratitude for what we do out here," he said.
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