An alleged drunk driver was arrested in a hospital bed after she slammed head-on into another car while driving the wrong direction on the Ouellette Avenue overpass.
Windsor police said the Maidstone woman caused the crash which put herself and the victim in hospital with serious injuries after driving south for about half a kilometre in the northbound lanes late Thursday. The opposing lanes on that stretch of road are separated by a concrete median.
Were continually delivering the message time and time again, and heres another incident where somebody was seriously injured as a result of poor decision making of an individual, said Sgt. Matthew DAsti. There are serious consequences that go with the decision to consume alcohol and then get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. Youre not only risking your own life, youre risking the lives and safety of everybody else who has the right to be on the road.
The Windsor-area car crash happened around 10:20 p.m. on the Ouellette Avenue overpass between Tecumseh Road and Eugenie Street. Ouellette was shut down for hours after.
DAsti said the woman had been heading west on Tecumseh Road in a white Ford Fusion. She stopped for a light then turned left onto Ouellette.
But instead of going around the median to go to the lanes on the right, she just went to the left and continued up the road, said DAsti.
The Fusion reached the top of the overpass before it crashed head-on into a northbound Chrysler Neon.
The driver of the Neon was trapped in her car. Firefighters had to extricate her. She suffered a dislocated hip that required surgery.
The 44-year-old Ford Fusion driver was also taken to hospital. She had two broken ribs. As officers dealt with her, police said, they could smell alcohol on her breath.
At hospital, officers arrested her for impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm.
Police said she refused to provide a sample of her blood for analysis. Officers also charged her with failure/refusal to provide a blood sample.
She was released from custody on a promise to appear in court on Feb. 11. Police didn’t release her name.