Posted on 06/10/2005 2:17:14 AM PDT by leadpenny
By DONNIE JOHNSTON
A Rixeyville man has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol on Culpeper's Main Street--on a lawn mower.
Town police Sgt. Chris Settle was patrolling the 880 block of North Main Street about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday when he noticed a man on a red riding lawn mower heading north in the left lane, according to Detective Richard Brooking.
At one point, the man stopped in the middle of the lane for almost a minute and carried on a conversation with the driver of a passing vehicle, Brooking said.
"After Settle watched the man almost get hit by several passing cars, he put on his emergency lights and pulled the lawn mower over," the detective said.
The driver, whom police identified as Jerry Wayne Hawkins, 43, of Rixeyville Road, told Settle he had been mowing a lawn and was on his way to a nearby convenience store to get gas, Brooking said.
"At that point, Sgt. Settle suspected the driver was impaired and administered sobriety tests, which Mr. Hawkins failed," Brooking said.
Hawkins was charged with driving under the influence, his second such charge within a 10-year period, Brooking said.
Hawkins was held on $1,500 bond.
To reach DONNIE JOHNSTON:DJohn40330@aol.com
Date published: 6/10/2005
Shouldn't that be MUI?
I think about when I was a teenager baling hay, riding and driving tractors and drinking beer, all at the same time.
I'm sure the cop will take some razzing from his partners but he was doing his job.
Just damn?
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=387&e=1&u=/ibsys/20050610/lo_wews/2766156
Its sad but in todays climate for no tolerance having even 1 beer has consequences
When I mow the lawn, I usually wait until the job is done to crack open a cold one.
Eastlake. Is that in Ohio?
Yes, east of Cleveland
Can't they leave the poor guy alone?
A slow speed pursuit then occured with the mower clipping several parked cars.
Yeah, my cousin Stubby learned that one the hard way.
When I was on Diego Garcia, the BIOT police regularly had sobriety checks on the street and quite a few Sailors got busted for riding their bicycles under the influence.
I lived in a small out-of-the-way town for a while and we once had a guy cited for DUI while riding his horse down the sidewalk of Main Street. He probably could have gotten away with it and the police might have chalked it up to livening up an otherwise dull day but he was just too obnoxious. I hate obnoxious drunks...
Didn't the same thing happen to singer George Jones at one time?
Middle name of Wayne, eh? I'm surprised he didn't kill someone with that mower.
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