Police: Crashed car with wheels off the ground leads to OVI charge in Butler County

A vehicle crash at 5:16 a.m. on July 20 brought Oxford police to the area of Merry Day Drive and College Corner Pike, where the responding officer found a silver Nissan Sentra straddling a nearly two-feet high retaining wall with both passenger-side wheels off the ground.

The vehicle had heavy front-end damage, was leaking oil and the driver’s side airbag had deployed.

The driver got out of the car barefoot as the officer arrived. He said he had been looking at his phone. In the report, the officer described him as unsteady on his feet, swaying as he walked and with slurred speech. He said he was not injured and was surprised when the officer pointed out minor bleeding from his knee.

He attempted to return to his car but tripped and caught himself on the open door before he fell. He then began complaining of knee pain, launching into a story about drunken horse-play with a friend a week earlier. He said he was coming from McDonald’s and denied drinking.

He was asked to submit to a Standardized Field Sobriety Test. He was again asked if he wanted to be evaluated by EMS but declined. The tests were stopped when he had difficulty with the balance and walk and turn tests out of caution for his safety.

He was placed under arrest and placed in the cruiser. His phone and identification were retrieved from his vehicle. At the police department, he was given a breath test which produced a reading of 0.191. While the officer was informing him he was over the legal limit, he reportedly interrupted to guess that his reading would be 0.24.

He was charged with operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

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