Petaluma Motorist Arrested for DUI After Rollover Crash

Patch.com reports that a motorist has been arrested on the charge of suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol after crashing his vehicle into a parked pickup truck.

According to a statement released by a spokesperson for the Petaluma Police Department, officers and firefighters responded to the incident in the 900 block of Western Avenue at approximately 4:34 a.m. on Saturday, April 23.

Authorities have identified the driver as 30-year-old Miguel Hernandez of Sonoma. Hernandez explained to the responding officers that he, along with two unidentified female passengers, had been at a bar in San Jose. At the bar, they met a man that Hernandez said he only knew by the name of “Jose.”

Hernandez claimed Jose offered to drive him and the two women home since they had too much to drink. Hernandez claimed Jose had been driving the vehicle when it crashed but fled the scene before police arrived.

Surveillance video collected from the residential neighborhood revealed that only Hernandez and his two female passengers were in the vehicle at the time of the crash. Both women confirmed to investigating officers that Hernandez was the one driving.

Both women suffered minor injuries in the crash and were transferred to Petaluma Valley Hospital by paramedics for treatment. 

Police officers conducted several field sobriety and breath tests at the scene, off of which Hernandez failed. Hernandez’s blood-alcohol level measured one and a half times the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Hernandez was arrested on suspicion of felony DUI, causing bodily injury to others, and providing false information to police and is currently being held in the Sonoma County Jail. 

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