Jason Miller
The News-Dispatch

SCIPIO TOWNSHIP - A 28-year-old Westville man who registered a .602 percent blood-alcohol level was killed late Saturday when his pickup truck was hit by a high-speed Amtrak train as he tried to drive around lowered crossing arms.

Michael E. Garner, who lived at County Road 125 South and Holmesville Road, was hit by the eastbound train - which was traveling about 79 miles per hour - at the crossing on County Road 500 West, just south of County Road 50 South, west of La Porte.

The train's engineer told La Porte County sheriff's deputies he was headed east around 11 p.m. when he saw Garner's 2003 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck slow, then maneuver around the lowered gates.

The engineer sounded the train's horn, but said Garner didn't heed the warning.

Garner was thrown from the vehicle and died instantly of a skull fracture.

"It was snowing heavily at the time, but he didn't slide into the gates," Deputy Coroner John Sullivan said. "He was driving around them."

The .602 percent blood-alcohol measured at the scene was some 7 1/2 times the legal state limit of .08 percent.

"That's the highest I've ever recorded in my career," said Sullivan, who has been a coroner for more than a decade and an Emergency Responder for nearly 30 years. "When you hit .6 percent, you're no longer just impaired. I was always told that between .35 percent and .45 percent, you're in an alcoholic stupor or even acute alcohol poisoning."

Sullivan said investigators don't know where Garner was driving to or from, or where he was drinking prior to the accident.

"It's just terrible," he said.

Michael Garner
Oct. 29, 1979-Dec. 15, 2007

LA PORTE - Michael E. Garner, 28, La Porte, passed away Saturday (Dec. 15, 2007) in La Porte.

He was born Oct. 29, 1979, in Munster, Ind., to Paul E. and Pauletta S. (Miller) Garner of La Porte.

Michael is survived by his parents; his sister, Brianne E. Garner, at home; his paternal grandparents, Paul R. and Karen J. Garner, of Tennessee (formerly Hebron, Ind.); his German shepherd, Ryder; numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.

Preceding him in death were his maternal grandparents, Paul D. and Pauline D. Miller.

Michael was a marine technician for Shoreland Marine Inc. in Michigan City where he worked approximately for the past three years. He was an ABATE member and loved hunting, fishing and camping. Michael had a generous spirit and was a wonderful son and brother. He was loved by all who knew him.

Visitation will be Wednesday, from 4 to 7 p.m., at the Newhard Funeral Home in Westville. The funeral service will be at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the funeral home. Pastor William Barnes will officiate. Burial will take place at 11 a.m. Thursday at Pinhook Cemetery.

I'm surprised he was able to WALK much less drive. When I was working EMS in the Navy, we went to a call at the barracks. This guy was extremely toasty. He had holed up in his room for several days. There was all sorts of bodily waste smeared all over the place. He was totally incoherent. When we tried to take him out of the room he woke up and became combative and belligerent, spitting at us, etc. Finally, we had to get Shore Patrol to come help us restrain him. We took him to the hospital and did a blood BAC. He was .535. That was the highest I've ever seen. He spent a week and a half in the hospital and had long term effects from alcohol poisoning. Anything over .35 is considered deadly.

CCR, I'm sorry for your loss. If he wasn't much of a drinker, he probably didn't know his limit. I'm sure who ever he was drinking with is feeling pretty lousy right about now.

Depends on how fast he was drinking. If you slam a bunch of shots in a short amount of time, you'd be surprised how quickly and how high the BAC could climb.

I found this BAC calculator thingy. A male 160 lbs would have to consume approximately 26 shots in 3 hours to have that level of BAC. The site I used didn't have an option for "shots", I used "on the rocks."

That's a lot of shots--you'd have to drink a shot about every 7 minutes.
So, I'll give you this one SSder. After the first hour a person would be so intoxicated they should have a hard time standing up, much less keep drinking.

If you're curious, here is a link to the site I used....
http://www.intox.com/wheel/drinkwheel.asp