Note to drunk drivers: The drive through lane is a place to get a nosh, not a nap.
A 30-year-old Summerville man found this out the hard way after police found him passed out behind the wheel of his car in the drive through lane of a fast food restaurant.
According to a Summerville Police Department incident report, an officer responded to a call at the Wendy’s on North Main Street at about 1:45 a.m. Sunday. The responding officer found the man in the driver’s seat of his car, a white Mini Cooper, which was between the order box and the window. The officer knocked on the driver and passenger side window several times but the driver remained unresponsive. The officer then called EMS and the driver awakened.
The officer told the driver to put the car in park but instead the driver put it into gear and began to roll forward. The officer told him to stop and put his foot on the brake but the car continued to roll forward. The officer told him to stop the car and this time he put it in reverse. The officer told the driver again to put his foot on the brake and stop the car, which the driver finally did. However, he appeared to have a little trouble with the emergency brake – apparently experiencing some confusion between it and the gearshift when the officer told him to pull the emergency brake handle.
The officer ordered the driver out of the vehicle, noting that the driver seemed very unsteady on his feet and actually had to put a hand on the car to keep from losing his balance.
The driver at first agreed to do the field sobriety tests but after a few moments, as EMS was arriving on the scene, became uncooperative and said he didn’t want to do them anymore. When the officer asked him why, he told the officer he was afraid of fire trucks. The officer told him they were not there to hurt him and asked him to continue, which he finally did. However, he could not complete any of the next tasks safely and refused to continue. At this point, the officer arrested him and took him to the police department for booking. At the department, the subject refused to take the Datamaster breath test, insisting that he didn’t trust the machine.
When the officer asked him if he had any questions about the implied consent form, the man responded that he did not have questions about the form, but he did have questions about what was read to him and insisted that his questions be “put on the record.”
Officers then transported him to the detention center.