Berwyn Man Charged With DUI After Bold Ride Through Riverside
(CBS) -- Riverside Police say it was 3:18 a.m. when 30-year-old Eric Quiroz was driving down Harlem with several other friends in the car.
"The officer was on normal patrol in the 3200 block of Harlem and the vehicle past him and blew five consecutive red lights," said Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel.
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Weitzel says Quiroz not only smelled of alcohol but had a beer in his hand when the officer pulled him over. He told police he had been drinking at several bars in Berwyn and was on his way home. Police even had to call in extra squad cars to take care of his passengers.
"He had several other passengers in the car, they were all drunk," Weitzel said. "In fact, they were so intoxicated we had to have a separate police car and transfer them to a residence in Berwyn where they live because they couldn't drive the car plus the weather conditions were so severe, we can't just have people just walk home in weather conditions like that."
Quiroz was charged with DUI. His blood alcohol level was .183, which is two and a half times the legal limit. Weitzel says he posted bond but then became combative and was taken into custody once again and taken to the hospital. He has since been released.
Weitzel says it was just lucky no other cars were in the area at the time.
"No one was out since it was so early in the morning and the weather was bad so that's the good news," he said. "Something like this is pretty rare. We see this with intoxication but for them to pass a police car, a marked SUV which is a large squad car, someone is pretty intoxicated to continue to pass the officer and then blew five red lights in a row. That's pretty unusual."
