Hatfield woman charged with Lansdale DUI crash

Police say a 30-year-old Hatfield woman was more than three times the legal limit for alcohol — and had marijuana and other drugs in her system — when she smashed into an occupied car in Lansdale late last month and drove away from the scene.

Elyse K. Morris, of the 1700 block of Lynrose Circle, was charged this week with five counts of misdemeanor driving under the influence, one count of misdemeanor accidents involving damage to an attended vehicle, and one count of summary careless driving in connection with the alleged March incident.

Police said in charging documents that around 10:40 p.m. on March 29, cops went to North Cannon Avenue and West Seventh Street for a report of a red car swerving all over the road and crossing into opposite lane. While searching for the car, officers were dispatched to the vicinity of West Seventh Street and Shaw Avenue for an accident in which a red vehicle had hit another car with three occupants, causing heavy, disabling damage along the length of the driver’s side of the struck car, according to an affidavit of probable cause. No injuries were reported as a result of the crash.

Police obtained the license plate number of the red car and traced it to Morris, who, cops learned, had gone to a residence on the 600 block of North Broad Street, the affidavit indicates.

At that location, cops found Morris’ car also heavily damaged, and Morris told them that she had just been sideswiped and stopped in an attempt to speak to the other driver, according to police, who said that her account of the incident contradicted both multiple witness accounts and physical evidence.

Morris showed signs of intoxication while speaking to cops, and she said that she had done shots several hours prior and had also taken a benzodiazepine pill prescribed to her, but denied abusing her prescription drugs or taking any illegal drugs, court documents state.

A portable breath test indicated Morris’s blood alcohol concentration was .224 percent and she was taken into custody for suspicion of DUI, then transported to an area hospital for a blood draw, the affidavit says.

Lab tests indicated her blood alcohol level was .266 percent when blood was taken more than an hour after the accident, and that she had marijuana and two prescription drugs in her system as well, court documents show.

A summons has been issued for Morris to appear in Lansdale district court on May 10 for a preliminary hearing in the matter.