Refrigerator knocks drunken biker cold
Published: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 -- The Truth, A2
Last updated: 8/8/2005 11:20:01 PM
By Tom Dolan
Truth Staff
ELKHART -- Some might call it cold justice, but a 28-year-old man was driving drunk Saturday morning when he crashed his motorcycle -- into a refrigerator.
The Nappanee man was driving on Nappanee Street, just north of Beardsley Avenue, when he hit the uninvited icebox just before 2:30 a.m.
"(Witnesses) advised that they were at the traffic light by Heart City Toyota and saw something flying in the air. As they approached the scene, they saw a motorcycle lying in the roadway by a refrigerator," reported Elkhart Cpl. Terry Chmiel.
After reporting what they saw, the witnesses offered to move the rogue appliance out of the driving lane. Chmiel accepted.
The officer found the driver in a nearby parking lot. The man, who smelled of alcohol, said he didn't want an ambulance but police called one anyway, Chmiel reported.
The driver reported that he was in too much pain for field sobriety tests so he was taken to Elkhart General Hospital, where medical tests revealed he had a broken collarbone and a blood-alcohol content of 0.17 percent, Chmiel reported.
The suspect also received stitches to his leg injury before he was released from the hospital and arrested on a misdemeanor DUI charge.
Like the suspect, the area of the crash was well lit, according to the police report, though it offered no explanation how the refrigerator roadblock got there