Los Angeles Magazine reported on community outrage over an allegedly drunk driver who stumbled away on foot from a car accident he caused without being questioned or given a field sobriety test by police present at the scene.
The initial incident occurred on August 22; a white man who witnesses said appeared to be highly intoxicated was driving a Dodge Charger down Los Feliz Boulevard and smashed into three parked cars. He was attempting to make a left turn onto Hillhurst Avenue, in the central Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz. The accident badly damaged all four vehicles.
After the man exited the vehicle, he face-planted into the grass median and proceeded to act intoxicated, according to witnesses. He reportedly yelled and screamed at responding police officers and ambulance personnel, and then simply walked away and disappeared, without being given a breathalyzer test or field sobriety exam. But when onlookers asked responding police while the man wasn’t given a field sobriety test, they could not or would not provide any answers.
The Los Angeles Police Department told reporters from CBS Los Angeles that the officers on the scene are responsible for deciding whether to administer a field sobriety test and that they simply opted not to. However, after public outcry, the LAPD is launching an investigation into how this chain of events occurred.