LAKE ORION, Mich. – A 47-year-old Orion Township woman has been charged with drunk driving after a breath test revealed she had a .36 blood alcohol content - nearly 4 times the legal limit for Michigan.
On Sunday, April 7 around about 11:30 a.m, the Lake Orion Police Department received a 911 call form a motorist reporting a reckless erratic driver. The caller reported following a white Chevrolet Equinox on Perry St. near Atwater in Lake Orion. The caller said the vehicle was headed west on Atwater and was running off the roadway, at one point drove across the sidewalk and into a yard then back onto the roadway the vehicle then crossed the center line narrowly missing hitting a vehicle head on traveling the opposite direction. The caller followed the vehicle into a parking lot near M-24 and Atwater, where a Lake Orion Police Officer arrived and intercepted the vehicle.
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The officer approached the parked running vehicle and observed a female driver with her head laying on the steering wheel, the officer also observed a young boy in the back seat that was not wearing a seat belt.
The officer had to knock on the window to get the driver to respond. As the driver spoke to the officer it became very clear that she had been drinking. The officer had the driver exit the vehicle for sobriety tests; the driver needed to use the door of the vehicle to maintain balance and failed all roadside sobriety tests.
The driver had such a high level of alcohol content she required a medical clearance before she could be incarcerated. In fact, police said it took her 19 1/2 hours to sober up enough to be released into her husband's custody.
Lake Orion Police Chief Jerry Narsh said, "That is enough alcohol consumed to get more than 4 adults arrested for drunk driving. It is amazing that no one was injured or killed including her and her child, based on her driving behavior."
The woman, who had no previous arrest record, is now charged with drunk driving and may face a charge of child endangerment.