A man with a half-empty gallon bottle of liquor in his pickup truck was arrested after crashing into a traffic sign Wednesday night in Wildwood.
Louis Henry Burton, 70, of Leesburg, had been traveling at about 11:30 p.m. on State Road 35 when a Wildwood police officer took note of Burton’s erratic driving pattern. At one point, Burton pointed his truck at the patrol car. The officer moved his car out of the truck’s path and the truck went on to shear off a traffic sign in the center median.
The officer activated his squad car’s emergency lights, but Burton disregarded the officer’s efforts to initiate a traffic stop. A second officer joined in the pursuit and deployed stop sticks, flattening both passenger side tires of Burton’s truck. The truck continued on for another half mile before finally rolling to a stop.
Burton could not stand on his own and had to be helped to a curb where he sat down. EMS personnel arrived on the scene to evaluate his medical condition.
A half-empty gallon bottle of liquor was found in Burton’s truck. He said he had begun drinking at about 11 a.m. that day.
He failed field sobriety exercises and provided breath samples that registered .231 and .237 blood alcohol content.
Burton was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center where he was initially being held without bond.
