Crime & Safety
Cops: Drunk Driver Fell Asleep Behind Wheel
The following arrest information was supplied by the Hopatcong police department. It does not indicate a conviction.
A man was found sleeping, drunk, behind his car's steering wheel, police said.
An officer drove past a gold Jeep around 2 a.m. on Oct. 9 on Lakeside Boulevard, Hopatcong police said. The vehicle was running and a man was inside, police said.
When the officer drove past about 4:40 a.m., the man inside was slumped over the steering wheel, police said. Eventually, the officer woke up the driver, Ricardo Ramirez of Dover, police said.
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Ramirez agreed to take field sobriety tests, but told the officer he wouldn't complete them, police said. Once the officer arrested Ramirez on a suspicion of drunk driving, the officer found a beer coaster in Ramirez's back pocket, police said. Then Ramirez admitted he was drinking in Hopatcong earlier that night, police said.
A breath test showed Ramirez had a blood-alcohol contest of .15 percent—or .07 percent higher than the legal limit, police said.
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Ramirez was charged with driving while intoxicated and driving without insurance. He was processed and released to a friend, police said.
For more information on this report, email brendan@patch.com.
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