Two Drivers Test the Limits of Drinking, Consciousness

In one of two arrests Sunday for operating while intoxicated, the drunken driver was so incapacitated he had passed out at the wheel – stopped, thank goodness – and police officers could not wake him.

While he certainly represented a danger to himself and others by getting behind the wheel, the other driver drove home the point – he actually caused a three-vehicle accident, which fortunately did not cause and serious injuries.

According to reports:

At 12:20 a.m., a 33-year-old Delafield man was arrested for his second drunken driving offense after a caller reported a man passed out at the wheel of a car with the rear window busted out.

Officers arrived in the 6900 block of West Center Street to find the car still running and the driver quite unconscious. They could not wake him even by repeatedly yelling into his ear and shaking him vigorously.

Finally, they called paramedics who put him in their ambulance in case he was actually in emergency condition. But they were eventually able to wake him at the scene, and police questioned him briefly.

He admitted he had been drinking beer at a festival. He gave no explanation for how and where his rear window got smashed.

He was then taken to Froedtert Hospital for observation, and police followed to administer sobriety and breath tests there, which he failed. He blew a .155 blood alcohol concentration, while still under restrictions from his first OWI conviction in April 2011 limiting him to no more than a .02 BAC.

He also was under an ignition interlock requirement, but his car was not so equipped – which will likely not sit well with a judge in his next round of OWI hearings.

Almost too intoxicated to talk, driver causes crash

A 23-year-old Carbondale, Ill., man was arrested for drunken driving, first offense, after he caused a three-vehicle accident at 10:47 p.m. at West North Avenue and North Mayfair Road.

The man had collided with a tow truck and then another car and had walked away from the crash, witnesses said. There were no injuries.

Police quickly found him nearby and asked him about the crash, to which he replied, “What crash? What vehicle?” – which might be typical answers from a suspect trying conceal any part in the incident.

But it turned out he was not really trying to deny involvement – he was uncomprehending and speaking jibberish, or putting on a good act of it. He could not give a rational answer to any question, and soon stumbled and would have fallen had the officer had not grabbed him.

He could not understand or complete sobriety tests, nor could he even understand when asked for a yes or no answer to giving a voluntary blood sample.

After multiple attempts to get his compliance or non-compliance on the record, officers had to take his inability to answer as a refusal, so a mandatory blood draw was ordered.

The man had also been seen to toss an object when he walked away from the crash, and it proved to be a small plastic bottle containing about 3 grams of marijuana. His blood will be tested for both alcohol and marijuana content.