Drunk Driver Crashes Onto Railroad Tracks In Westlake

WESTLAKE, OH — Police helped avert a tragedy when a drunken driver crashed his car onto the railroad tracks at the north end of Canterbury Road this week. The driver told police he had drunk "enough to get inebriated."

On Tuesday night, a Bay Village resident called police and said a SUV was sitting on the Canterbury railroad. Officers checked out the complaint and found a silver SUV parked on the rails.

The driver had been going north on Canterbury but didn't stop at the dead end, hit a guardrail, went airborne over a drop-off and landed on the train tracks.

Police called Norfolk Southern and got the company to stop train traffic in the area.

The driver, a 59-year-old Westlake man, had to be helped out of the car and assisted while walking because he was so unsteady on his feet. Police asked the man how much he had to drink and he reportedly said, "I had enough to inebriated," police noted.

The man was taken to a local hospital and cited with operating a vehicle impaired and failure to control.

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Photo from Westlake Police