Drunken Drivers Crawl Over Each Other In Westlake

WESTLAKE, OH — A poorly executed switch-a-roo couldn't save two drunken drivers from police last weekend.

Just after midnight on March 9, police were called to the parking lot of the Time Warp Bar for a reported argument. A car had struck a parked vehicle and then sped off.

Witnesses told officers that one of the involved cars had left the scene before police arrived. Night shift officers located the vehicle before it got out of Westlake and pulled it over. Then things got ridiculous.

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Just after the vehicle stopped, officers saw the driver, a woman, switch seats with his passenger, a man. In the process of crawling over one another, the man hit the car horn with his knee. It was not a covert switch-a-roo.

Police said they discovered the man had a beer in his hand, which made getting out of the driver's seat even more difficult.

The man would not tell police his name and when asked to get out of the car, he had trouble standing on his own. The woman, who had crawled into the passenger's seat, was arrested for operating a vehicle impaired. Witnesses told investigators that she had been driving at the time of the accident.

The woman, a 50-year-old from Bay Village, refused to take roadside sobriety tests, but did take a breath test. She was found to be nearly 2.5 times over the legal limit for BAC.

The man, a 43-year-old from Tennessee was charged with operating a vehicle impaired, driving under suspension, furnishing false information to a police officer, and open container.