Man Who Drove into Construction Trench Blew a .20

A 21-year-old Milwaukee man had a blood alcohol concentration 2½ times the limit when he drove into a construction trench on Mayfair Road, police say – while he was driving in oncoming traffic lanes.

According to Wauwatosa police reports, the man appeared in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 10499 Innovation Dr., just before 2:45 a.m. last Monday and said he had driven into a ditch. Hotel staff called police, told them the man seemed to be inebriated, and gave a description.

An officer on his way to the hotel spotted a subject fitting the description standing just south of the intersection of Mayfair and Watertown Plank roads, and said the man flagged him down.

The officer said he asked if he was the man who driven into a ditch, but the man denied it. He was then asked if he had just been in the Crowne Plaza lobby, and he said he had been and planned to get a room. The officer then advised him that he matched the description given him of a man who had been in the hotel and had told staff he'd crashed his car, and the man finally admitted it.

However, he couldn't remember where his car was. The officer noted that the suspect smelled of alcohol and, asked if he'd been drinking, he said he'd had one or two beers. Asked again where he'd crashed his car, he said, "Over yonder," pointing to the south.

Eventually, the man's car was found upside down in a deep utility trench in the 1000 block of Mayfair, along with an orange construction barrel.

"Based on the vehicle's positioning, it appeared as though the vehicle was traveling southbound in the northbound lanes prior to driving into the pit," the officer wrote in his report. Somehow, the man avoided any injury and was able to escape from his car, a 2002 Toyota Solara.

The driver performed poorly on standard field sobriety tests.

The officer wrote further: "Based on (the subject's) moderate odor of intoxicants, his slurred speech, admissions of drinking, lack of geographical awareness, performance on the SFSTs, and the fact that the car he was driving was found upside down in a construction pit, I arrested him for operating while intoxicated (1st offense)."

The suspect blew a .20 blood alcohol concentration on an evidentiary breath test at the police station, and when asked to sign a pre-interrogation form advising him of his rights and risks should he answer questions or make a statement, he signed with a crude sexual play on words that amounted to an invitation to police officers as to what they could do with him – which officers interpreted as an indication that he did not wish to answer any questions.