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Drunk driver found asleep at wheel in Troy
A 35-year-old woman coming home from her friend's house was found passed out in her vehicle, blocking two lanes of traffic in the middle of the night in Troy. Her foot was on the brake pedal and with the car still in park, police used backup to ensure she could be safely removed before being arrested.
TROY, Mich. (FOX 2) - Troy police out on patrol last week came upon a startling discovery when they found a vehicle in the middle of Coolidge Street. The vehicle's brake lights were on and police later found a woman asleep behind the wheel.
Observing the vehicle around 1:30 a.m. just south of Wattles, they soon realized the only thing keeping it from moving was the driver's foot on the brake pedal.
"The officers are just taking note on if the vehicle is still in drive which it was. The driver’s foot was on the brake and the driver’s head was back on the headrest," said Troy Police Sgt. Ben Hancock.
After calling for backup, notifying dispatch of a "driver passed out," they had a second patrol unit pull up in front of the vehicle.
"The officers called for a second vehicle to come in front of that stopped vehicle and then they woke the driver up," said Hancock.
The driver, later identified as Eva Marie Brow, 35, of Pontiac, began to awake and was disoriented as she took her foot off the brake pedal. She then bumped into the police cruiser in front of her.
Police could smell alcohol on Brow's person and noted her speech was slurred. After she failed a sobriety test, police took her into custody. She was apparently coming home from a friend's house in Fraser.
"She was arrested for OWI - operated whiled intoxicated - this happened to be her third offense, so this is a felony and then she was arraigned and given a $5,000 personal bond," said Hancock.
It's not the strangest thing for police to see during the holidays. Officers plan to be out in force, being extra observant of drunk drivers.
"We always do extra patrols around the holidays, specifically the night before Thanksgiving with the big bar night we’ll have extra officers out there enforcing the operating while intoxicated," said Hancock.