Worcester-area trucker arrested for drunk driving after crash

There are certain risks when a person gets behind the wheel of a vehicle while they’re drunk. There is a sizable chance that they will get into an accident that causes injuries or fatalities.

There is also a chance that they will get into an accident that does little but cause property damage, result in the loss of their job and possible time in jail.

Both of these outcomes were seen recently in the Worcester area and in New Bedford.

Not far from us in Worcester, a dump truck driver was arrested and charged for the fifth time with drunken driving after police said he rear-ended a car.

The 49-year-old truck driver faces a raft of charges after the Southbridge accident. But the good news is that he didn’t cause any apparent injuries to the driver of the other vehicle.

Police said they went to the scene of the accident and found a Jeep Liberty with a crushed rear quarter panel, and a nearby dump truck that had left two skid marks: each more than 130 feet long.

The Jeep driver said he was making a right turn into his driveway when the truck hit his vehicle.

The truck driver reportedly told officers that his brakes failed. But police said he was behaving in a strange manner — eating snacks nonstop and wandering around nervously — and that his eyes were glassy and his breath smelled of alcohol.

The trucker claimed he had not consumed any alcohol, but he was unable to complete the field sobriety test successfully, and police found an empty beer can in his truck, as well as a cold can in a styrofoam holder.

He clearly faces some legal problems, but he and the driver of the Jeep are both lucky that the accident didn’t turn out as one did the other day in New Bedford.

In that crash, a 20-year-old man died because, police say, a drunken driver was behind the wheel.

The only way to ensure that drunk drivers don’t kill any more is for people to stop getting behind the wheels of vehicles after consuming alcohol.

Source: Worcester Telegram, “Truck rear-ends car in Southbridge; driver’s 5th OUI charge,” May 29, 2013