On the way home from the local supermarket the other night I found myself behind what seemed to me to be a drunk driver. It wasn't something I'd expect to see in suburbia at 7:00 in the evening.

It was a small sedan pulling a trailer and every once in a while the male driver would veer towards the side of the road and the curbside trailer wheel would jump the curb.

I followed as we pulled onto another street - I wanted to see if he was truly impaired or just not paying attention to his driving when I happened to be watching. I watched as he took out two bright orange reflective construction barrels on the side of the road and managed to take out two bright orange cones (the only two - in the middle of the road) as he swerved back and forth.

His speed varied from 10 miles an hour to 40 miles an hour where the speed limit was clearly posted at 25 and he was frequently crossing into the oncoming lane of traffic.

I continued to follow the driver as we made seemingly erratic turns on side streets (carefully keeping my distance) when I finally decided to call the driver in. I dialed our local police department's non-emergency number (I didn't want to tie up a 911 operator) and described what I'd seen and who I was following.

The dispatcher had me stay on the line as he tried to locate the nearest officer. The city is a pretty big sized bedroom community of some 12,000 or so - I don't know how many officers are on duty at any particular time - but I do know (from what I heard in the background on the dispatcher's end of the call) that there weren't any officers nearby and nobody seemed in too big a hurry to rush over to where we were.

Up until this point the only people in peril were the driver of the car and me; there had been no other cars on the road. But, as we turned onto a major thoroughfare his reckless driving became increasingly dangerous. Car after car had to swerve out of the way as the driver crossed the center line, almost having head-on collisions. With each "almost" head-on I urged the dispatcher to get an officer over immediately because this driver was going to kill someone.

The driver finally pulled into a local pharmacy (after jumping the curb and nearly sideswiping another vehicle) and I watched as a squad car drove past, apparently not noticing the maroon sedan with the trailer that the officer was supposed to be looking for. I told the dispatcher that the car pulled into the pharmacy parking lot and that a squad had driven right past at which point I heard him talk to the officer in the squad which promptly turned around and went into the parking lot.

Then the dispatcher thanked me for calling in and we ended the call. I felt pretty shaken up - I counted at least 6 near head-on collisions and more than a dozen "almost" collisions with parked cars. I did feel good though - nobody was injured and the police were now in control of the situation.

I made my way home with my now thawed groceries and had supper with my family. About half an hour later my cell phone rang - the caller ID said it was the local police department.

"Hello? I said; "Hello" answered the dispatcher. "This is so-and-so with the police department and I wanted to call you to let you know what happened with the driver you called in about earlier." I was thinking 'great - they arrested the drunk jerk off' when the dispatcher told me that the driver was being treated by the emergency medical service - he was having a diabetic episode and apparently tried getting to the pharmacy for something or another.

The tone of the dispatcher's voice led me to think that we had done some great service by saving this poor man's life as he was experiencing a potentially life threatening medical condition and we should be glad he was being treated.

But (yes, there's always a 'but').let me give you some background. I spent five years as a volunteer EMT and responded to many accidents caused by people having "medical issues" from strokes to heart attacks to diabetic situations. At every accident I helped pull the helpless medical victim out of the car, loaded him or her into the ambulance and rushed off to the hospital for treatment.

However, I also had to pull the people the driver hit out of their cars. Families heading off for vacations, single working mothers coming home after working double shifts, young kids just learning to drive - all were victims.

I don't blame the drivers that had heart attacks, strokes or other medical 'attacks' that had no warning signs or that were simply unpredictable. I do blame drivers like the diabetic that had too much or too little sugar or wasn't taking the proper medications at the proper doses.

Those accidents are 100% preventable yet time and time again drivers like the one I called in put themselves in dangerous situations and risk the lives of every single other driver and passenger on the road and for what? Because they couldn't manage their chronic medical condition? Give me a break!

Drivers like the one I called in shouldn't be given special treatment - they should be arrested for reckless driving or impaired driving. Police officers shouldn't be patting themselves on the back for saving some impaired driver's life - they should be slapping cuffs on the driver and hauling them away and thanking God that nobody was seriously injured or killed.

So, to police everywhere, I have but one thing to ask - how would you feel if that diabetic whose life you "saved" hadn't been caught in time and just happened to have a head-on crash with your family killing your spouse and children. Would you still be patting yourself on the back for saving the driver's life? Do the right thing and put the people who willingly risk the lives of other behind bars.