Suspected DUI Driver Smashed into Fresno Patrol Car

Some repeat offenders never learn as evidenced in an incident which occurred Sunday night in the outskirts of Fresno.

When Fresno police received several 911 emergency phone calls shortly before 7:30 p.m. Sunday night, they responded to Belmont and Armstrong avenues, said Sgt. Paul Cervantes, of the Fresno Police Department, where they found an intoxicated man driving on two flat tires.

Arrested was a 76-year-old man who was on probation for driving under the influence in a prior incident. This time he was arrested again on suspicion of intoxicated driving after crashing into a Fresno police patrol car, police said Sunday.

The man was driving west on Belmont Avenue in the eastbound lanes when his vehicle hit a one-way sign that cracked his front windshield and flattened a tire. He then turned south onto Clovis Avenue and started driving on the center median, which caused the other tire to flatten, Cervantes said. “I am just glad he didn’t hurt anyone,” said Cervantes. “A car can be fixed.”

The driver stopped in the intersection at Tulare and Clovis avenues, where he put the vehicle in reverse and clipped the front end of the patrol car behind him.

The vehicle ended up in a flower bed at the Spirit gas station, where officers arrested the driver. The man was taken to Community Regional Medical Center for a blood test.

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