Suspected intoxicated driver crashes into house
Royal Oak police are waiting on blood test results before seeking charges against a man who crashed into the front of house on Main Street near Normandy Road. The crash happened shortly after 8 p.m. March 19.
Police said less than two minutes before the crash they received multiple calls about a driver in a red 2010 Ford Mustang speeding east on Normandy and running a red light at Delemere Boulevard.
More calls came into police after the driver, 31, of Southfield plowed into the front of the two-story house on Main Street.
Royal Oak and Clawson police officers arrived at the house to find the Mustang had rolled up over a low porch, crashing into a front window and brick wall a few feet away from the front door to the home. There were people inside the house, but no one was injured. A woman at the house talked to police and her home insurance carrier was contacted, police said.
The driver was not in the car and police said they found him hiding along the side of the house.
When police tried to question the suspect, they said he seemed to be delusional.
“He was rambling nonsense,” said Royal Oak police Lt. Albert Carter. “He seemed to be out of it and a little paranoid.”
The suspect tried to run away and was arrested.
“Speaking to him led us to believe he was under the influence of either narcotics or alcohol,” Carter said.
Police said the driver appeared to have no obvious serious injuries. However, crash victims can often suffer internal injuries, Carter said, and the driver was taken to Beaumont Hospital for medical treatment.
City Department of Public Service workers boarded up the damaged section of the house so that the occupants are able to still live there, Carter said.
A blood sample was drawn from the suspect for testing to determine whether there were drugs or alcohol in his system.
Police said test results from the blood sample are expected to take about another four weeks. The driver was released from police custody for medical treatment pending further investigation.