DWI arrest made at Broadway and St. Louis, driver was asleep with cell phone in hand, two infants in back seat

(From the Joplin Police Department)

Incident Spotlight

Joplin Police made 4 DWI arrests in four hours yesterday evening

Yesterday evening at 8:24 p.m. one of our officers located a vehicle stopped in the roadway at Broadway and St. Louis.

The officer hit the lights and siren and the vehicle didn’t move. He walked up to the front driver’s window and saw a male driver passed out behind the wheel. The car was in drive, the driver’s foot was on the brake, and he was holding a cell phone in his hand that was continuously ringing. 

More troubling, there were two small children in the back seat. One was asleep and one was screaming and crying. 

The officer couldn’t get the male to come to and the door was locked. Fearing the male being startled and driving away, the officer moved his police car bumper to bumper with the front of the male’s car to prevent it from going mobile. After more knocking on the window the male finally came to and followed instructions and exited the car. 

He was found to be a suspended driver, and arrested for driving while suspended in addition to child endangerment plus DWI. The two children in the back seat were three months old and one year old.

This was one of four DWI arrests made last night in less than four hours. The other three were as follows:

-4:39pm at 7th and Illinois involving a vehicle crash

-7:24pm at 12th and Geneva involving a vehicle crash

-7:52pm Highway 249 and Interstate I-44 involving a wrong way driver on 249