A Toyota Yaris crashed into a Richardson police patrol vehicle on Wednesday morning. Police suspected that the driver of the vehicle was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident.
The crash occurred on the 1400 block of North Central Expressway at about 1 a.m. The two officers in the patrol squad were investigating another accident at the time, and no one was in the patrol car when the driver crashed into it.
Two lanes on the road had been blocked due to the investigation as officers were speaking to the drivers. From the dash-cam footage, a vehicle can be seen approaching the accident. It crashes into the back of one of the patrol vehicles, causing it to spin.
The driver, Celeste Perez, was arrested on the scene and charged with driving while intoxicated. The charge is a Class B misdemeanor according to the Texas penal code and is punishable by a minimum confinement of seventy-two hours.
According to officer Mike Wieczorek, the Toyota Yaris that Perez was driving was damaged at the front-end, causing the airbags to deploy.
According to the Texas Department of Transportation, people are considered legally intoxicated when their blood alcohol concentration reaches 0.08%. The law states that people are in violation of the law as soon as drugs or alcohol affect their driving ability.