Police: City man drives while three times over alcohol limit

NORTH SMITHFIELD – A Woonsocket man who crashed his car last week while driving with more than three times the legal limit of alcohol in his system was ordered held after an appearance in Third District Court Monday, police said.

Christian Morales, 26, of 161 Sixth Ave., was remanded to the Adult Correctional Institutions as a violator of probation on two prior convictions, one stemming from a prior drunk driving arrest in Woonsocket and another for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest out of Lincoln.

Detective Capt. Tim Lafferty said Morales was arrested Thursday night after members of the patrol division investigated a single-car crash at 112 Greenville Road. Morales was traveling west when his vehicle veered out of its lane and slammed into a parked pickup truck.

A witness who heard the crash found Morales leaning against the driver’s side door of his car and offered to call an ambulance, but Morales refused any help and started walking away, according to Lafferty.

Responding officers found him as he was leaving the area and determined Morales had been driving under the influence. After failing a standardized battery of field sobriety tests, Morales agreed to take a preliminary breath test, registering a blood alcohol content of .248. The limit for driving legally is .08.

Morales was taken into custody and transported to headquarters, where he refused further chemical tests. He was charged with thirdoffense driving under the influence, a felony; second-offense refusal to take a chemical test; and operating a motor vehicle on a suspended license. Lafferty said Morales’ license had been suspended since January after a prior drunk driving conviction.

Following his arraignment in Third District Court on Monday, Morales was remanded to the Adult Correctional Institutions pending a violation hearing on Aug. 7.