South Dakota Woman Sets State Blood Alcohol Content Record

By Chris Kramer

A South Dakota woman received a dubious honor in December when she doubled the state’s previous record for blood alcohol content.

On Dec. 1 of last year, state troopers found Marguerite Engle passed out in the driver’s seat of a stolen van on the side of a highway.

Engle, 45, was found to have a shocking .708 blood-alcohol content percentage, about 25 percent higher than the highest BAC recorded in South Dakota history, according to a reportin the New York Daily News.

“The BAC is almost incomprehensible,” said Meade County State’s Attorney Jesse Sondreal. She said the previous record high for BAC in the state was .56. Drivers found with a BAC over .08 percent can be charged with a DUI in every state.

Somehow, Engle managed to survive with a BAC level that would have been fatal in most instances.

If a person drinks to the point where his or her BAC is .20, just over half of the legal limit for driving, the person could hurt could themselves and not feel any pain. Walking would also be a difficult task.

But if the person continues to drink to the point of reaching a .25 percent BAC, he or she is at a high risk from choking on vomit. Beyond that level lays a legitimate possibility of death by alcohol poisoning.

At a .35 percent BAC, it is as if the same person was given anesthesia for surgery. And if a person can actually reach .40 percent BAC, they are likely to become comatose. That level involves a high risk of respiratory arrest, which can lead to death.

Despite being hospitalized after she was found behind the van’s steering wheel, Engel was found again, less than a week later, asleep behind the wheel of another stolen on a different highway, according to the Daily News.

She was found on a highway near the hospital in Sturgis, South Dakota where she was treated after her record-setting night the previous week. The vehicle was in a ditch beside the road this time, according to the Daily News, and authorities are waiting on another blood test taken.

While Engel was released on bail for her first DUI charge, she missed a court date between her two charges. Once back in court later in December, a judge ordered her to be held in jail without any bail.

She was later charged with two counts of driving under the influence and could also face charges for grand theft auto, according to the Daily News.

Engel’s extreme drunkenness still doesn’t surpass the reigning champion of intense alcohol consumption, and driving. And being found asleep at the wheel.

That distinction still remains in the hands of then 42-year-old Terri Comer who was found unconscious in early 2008 behind the wheel of a running car stuck in a snow bank in rural Oregon.

Comer’s BAC at the time was .72. She was still alive when deputies found her.