Yes, you read correctly. Low-speed car chase. Not something you see in the news too often, right?

Jacob Kells (30) is from Santa Rosa, CA. He has diabetes. Last Thursday, Kells got behind the wheel of a rented U-Haul truck. Oh, what a bad idea. He was obviously having low blood sugar issues because he caused several minor hit-and-run crashes that morning. Kells would not respond to police calls for him to pull over. Result: the cops had to tail him all, slowly, all the way from Redwood City to Gilroy.

When the police finally caught up with him, Kells was reportedly sweating and incoherent. The officers, obviously aware his state was diabetes-related, gave him glucose paste then got him to hospital, pronto. He was later arrested and taken in for psychological assessment - which I guess means there may be something else going on here other than low blood sugar.

Hats off to the officers of the Redwood City California Highway Patrol for recognizing the signs of low blood sugar and reacting accordingly. That is, for understanding the medical basis for Kells' behavior - not assuming the guy was just drunk or high.

Yes, I'm back on the topic of diabetes and car crash liabiity. Here's a case from Montana that's become particularly ugly. Eleven-year-old Cady Tucker was killed in a head-on collision five years ago. The driver of the car that caused the crash has diabetes. Now, usually in these situations the diabetic (sorry, BetterCell!) driver was experiencing low blood sugar. But in this case, the driver had extremely high blood sugar.

Ever since the crash, the girl's mom, Pat Tucker, has been trying to press criminal charges against the woman. Tucker likens the crash to a DUI. The driver, she says, was "drunk on sugar." The Tuckers have even founded an organization devoted to changing the law: People Against Impaired Drivers.

Now Tucker is very upset because she was not able to get to court before last week, when the statute of limitations ran out on the case. "I couldn't believe a crime wasn't committed when a child's life was taken," says Tucker.

There's a ton of sympathy out there for grieving mom, Tucker. But no one's going to bat for her. Attorney General Mike McGrath has said that while he's sorry for Tucker, the accident was just that: an accident, and not a case of negligent homicide. "We don't put people in prison for high blood sugar," says McGrath.

Anyone out there following the case of Mr. Universe's beating and subsequent arrest at the hands of police will be interested in this latest news: a five million dollar lawsuit has been filed by the bodybuilder against Redwood City, California. The suit includes claims for two million dollars in economic damages and three million in non-economic damages.

Read Allie's previous blogs (one and two) on the subject if you want all the details. But here's a quick summary: Mr. Natural Universe, Doug Burns (43), was at the movies in Redwood City, back in April. Burns, a type 1 diabetic, felt a little giddy. Attributing this to low blood sugar, he headed to the lobby for a snack but was intercepted by security who mistook him for a drunk. There followed a struggle with police, during which Burns was allegedly beaten and maced.

Needless to say, this sorry episode is yet another example of how law enforcement see a person swaying, weaving and incoherent and the assumption is always that the person is drunk or high. At least in the case of Doug Burns, the victim has some public clout to help him out. There is an urgent need for education here: police officers must be aware of the signs of hypoglycemia.

St. Louis resident and diabetic Roosevelt Sims was on an Amtrak train Sunday night, speeding towards his destination - Los Angeles. He never made it to that fine city, however, because he was forced off the train by a conductor. It seems Amtrak personnel found Sims disorderly, presumed he was drunk, and decided to eject him before he disturbed other passengers. His family members, however, say Sims was diagnosed with diabetes just the day before leaving St. Louis, and they think he may have been in diabetic shock. That, rather than intoxication, they say, may have been the reason for his alleged unruly behavior.

Initial reports made this episode sound like a horrible abuse against this man had been committed by Amtrak. Stories were filled with descriptions of his being dumped in the middle of nowhere amidst 800,000 acres of pine forest. The details were faithfully repeated by various websites. Okay, so the police helped out when a local lieutenant provided the following juicy quotation: "You don't put anyone off in an area like that. There's no water up here, we're at almost 8-thousand feet." Meanwhile, MyFox St.Louis quoted Sims' irate wife saying of his treatment, "I wouldn't have put a dog off like that."

The reality, it seems, wasn't quite as awful at the gushing headlines indicated. Sims was put off the train and, yes, this did occur in the middle of a pine forest. However, he was not alone: a conductor got off the train with him and waited for the police, who had been notified, to come and pick Sims up. But when police did arrive, Sims took off into the woods alone, leaving his bags and meds behind. He did take his cell phone, though, and used it to call his family. Also, Sims was not put off literally in the middle of nowhere; rather, he was escorted off at Williams Junction, a regularly scheduled stop along the way. Sims was found Thursday night walking along the railroad track and was taken to a hospital for a checkup.

All-in-all, sounds like a case possibly bungled by Amtrak, but one that the media seized upon and reported (embroidered?) with great relish. Amtrak has issued a statement saying its staff merely followed company policy in their handling of the Sims incident. Can you say public relations disaster?

Footnote: I was surprised to notice that the WLTX report describes Sims as an "elderly man." I wonder how many people these days consider someone in their sixties to be elderly? I don't. Guess it makes the story sound all that more exciting, huh?

Ian Gibson, a former chairman of the Commons Science and Technology Committee, has apologized if he offended anyone with the comments he made earlier suggesting that the cause in increased childhood diabetes cases diagnosed in his Norfolk constituency could be the result of residents inbreeding.

"I would imagine it is linked to the fact that people in Norfolk are quite inbred, with many not leaving the county," Dr. Gibson, Labour MP for Norwich North, told his local newspaper, the Norwich Evening News. "It is something that needs to be looked at as a priority, especially as many cases are linked to obesity too."

Diabetes experts have come forward to call his suggestion disgraceful, inappropriate and wrong. Genetics do not work that way and to even suggest that diabetes is linked to inbreeding is an insult to people with type 1 diabetes and their families and it's an insult to people in Norfolk. That's an understatement.

I don't think Dr. Gibson can use being drunk as an excuse for his outrageous remarks, and he clearly isn't apologizing for what he said -- only to anyone that might be offended by the comments. That could be six billion people minus one.