The case for not drinking and driving
Most of us have been there. Perhaps not as much as former Toronto Maple Leafs captain Rob Ramage was “there”, but most of us have been in a situation where we have had a few drinks and thought we were okay to drive. Most of us though, either at the insistence of friends and family, or because we heeded our inner voice telling us not to get behind the wheel, have called a cab, or got a ride home with someone who hadn’t been drinking.
Ramage had everything going for him. Successful in business after a successful NHL career during which he won two Stanley Cups and was named captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, he is now a convicted criminal whose negligence nearly four years ago resulted in the death of his friend - former NHLer Keith Magnusson. He was also convicted of impaired and dangerous driving and having an excess blood-alcohol level at the time he drove his rental car head-on into an oncoming sport utility vehicle, killing his passenger Magnusson.
Now, in addition to likely losing his permanent U.S. residency status (he and his family have been living in St. Louis for years) legal experts say he faces a two-to-five-year jail term when sentenced in January.
One for the road? No thank you.