.jpg "His 4-year-old girl was buckled up and not in a child seat, police said.")
His 4-year-old girl was buckled up and not in a child seat, police said.
A father told police he drank 12 alcoholic drinks of Twisted Tea at a friend’s house before driving away with his 4-year-old daughter, according to Iowa State Police.
When a 32-year-old man reached a stoplight in Des Moines, police say he passed out.
Officers were called to a traffic light around 10 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 14, and it took “several minutes to wake him up,” according to a Des Moines police report. The Jeep Liberty SUV was driving and the keys were in the ignition.
The 4-year-old girl was unbuckled and not in a child seat, police said.
After the father awoke, police say he had “watery eyes, slurred speech and a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage.”
The man admitted to drinking 12 glasses of stiff iced tea and said he was a “five” on a one-to-10 intoxication scale, the report said. He said that “he felt the effects of alcohol.”
He also refused a field sobriety test and a breath test, police said. He was described as unstable and “difficult to understand” and after he asked to call his ex-wife, police said he didn’t know what to say, so he asked for help to hang up on her.
The father was charged with driving while intoxicated, child endangerment (substantial endangerment) and failure to use child restraints.
Authorities say he was the “primary caregiver” of his daughter at the time of the incident.
