You could say that the source of this man’s costume is also the source of his arrest. That’s because a man in Franklin County, Kansas, in a Bud Light beer can costume, drank too much Bud Light and was arrested by police for drunk driving. We bet you were expecting this to happen in Florida or California, weren’t you? In any case, driving drunk is no laughing matter, but there is a layer of irony over the whole episode.

Is this a typical police drunk driving stop?

“A career in law enforcement is exciting, and you get to experience something new every day,” the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department posted on Facebook. “Sometimes you see things you can’t believe!” To punctuate the strangeness of the encounter, the Sheriff posted the accompanying dashcam image of the man in the Bud Light costume. You can’t see his face because who wants people to see them like this?

The arrest took place on Interstate 35 which is southwest of Kansas City. “Deputies were surprised to see the driver was wearing a beer can costume, the post says. “Yes, you read that correctly.” 

“Obviously it was significant enough that we thought it needed to be posted out on social media,” Franklin County Sheriff Jeff Richards told The Star. “We see strange things in our line of work, but that’s toward the top, for sure.”

Was the drunk driving suspect coming from a party?

Though the arrest was on May 5, the Sheriff says the crime was not related to any Cinco de Mayo festivities, though he doesn’t mention what the reason was for the costume. But Richards added, “As always, suspects are innocent until proven guilty.” The driver is not in custody, though his disposition is unknown. 

Though this is humorous and all, and there were no injuries, it goes without saying that driving while under the influence of alcohol or other substances continues to be a problem. There are over 250 alcohol-related deaths every day. 

The National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics has the numbers broken down in many ways, but these are the basics. Alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. are around 95,000 each year. Drunk driving deaths stand at over 10,500 annually. 

Are drunk driving deaths going up or down?

Texas leads all states with almost 1,500 drunk driving fatalities last year. Of those, 155 were under the age of 21. And 28% of all driving fatalities in the U.S. come from drunk driving. 

Unfortunately, drunk driving deaths continue to climb. In a 10-year span from 2010 to 2019, average DUI death rates climbed from 7.5 per 100,000 to 10.4. Per 100,000 people, New Mexico has the highest rate of deaths at 34.3. 

Hawaii’s death rate is the lowest at 5.9 per 100,000. The overall national average is 10.4 deaths per 100,000 people. Surprisingly, large metropolitan areas see lower deaths per 100,000 than small- and non-metro regions.