During the holiday season, from Christmas through New Year’s Eve, our law enforcement officers and emergency personnel know that the chances of someone getting behind the wheel after consuming alcohol go up. During that time, they know to expect alcohol-related crashes also to increase.
KNVN Action News reports that’s what happened when a 21-year-old Chico woman rear-ended a City of Chico Fire Department fire engine.
Dispatchers received a call about a driver who appeared to be asleep at the wheel and unresponsive.
In a statement about last week’s incident, a spokesperson for the Chico Police Department told reporters that the suspect, Ezrah Hankings of Chico, fell asleep at the wheel at the intersection of Cohasset Road and Pillsbury Roads. Hankings allegedly passed out with her foot on the brake and her car still in gear.
Hankings awoke with a start when Chico firefighters knocked on the window of her vehicle, causing her to drive her white Honda CRV into the back of the fire engine.
Chico Police Department officers responded to the scene and determined that Hankings was intoxicated. She was arrested at the scene on suspicion of DUI and other related charges.
Hankings’ car suffered minor front-end damage, while the fire engine was completely undamaged in the incident.
An eyewitness captured the incident on cellphone video.
