A 41-year-old Ohio woman was taken into custody on Sept. 22 after she drove 5 miles on Interstate 71 in the wrong direction. Around 2 a.m., a police officer saw her in the northbound lanes near the Ronald Reagan Highway driving south. She had been spotted earlier about 5 miles away driving the wrong way. Police were initially made aware of the situation by 911 callers. There is dash cam footage of the car driving the wrong way near the Ronald Reagan Highway and nearly hitting a tractor-trailer.
According to police, an officer got behind the woman’s car and turned on the lights as an attempt to warn other drivers about her. After the woman was stopped, she leaned against a concrete barrier according to the report. The report also says that she admitted she was drunk. The police officer said it was not possible to perform a field sobriety test because of the woman’s condition.
The report gave her blood alcohol level as .219 according to the Breathalyzer. She was taken into custody and faces OVI charges.
The consequences for drunk driving can be serious even if it is just a first-time offense. Penalties could include a license suspension or having to place an ignition interlock device on the vehicle. Depending on a person’s job, there could also be professional consequences. However, there are several approaches to defense a person could use. In a case like the one above, the focus might be on reducing the severity of the penalty. However, if a person disputes the charges altogether, an attorney might look into how the traffic stop was conducted, whether the Breathalyzer was administered correctly and other aspects of the investigation.
Source: WLWT5, “Police: Drunken driver goes wrong way on Interstate 71 for 5 miles,” Sept. 22, 2017
