http://www.press-citizen.com/article/201...;nclick_check=1
A North Liberty man has been arrested for driving with a blood-alcohol content nearly eight times the legal limit.
Police Chief Jim Warkentin said 24-year-old Justin A. Clark’s blood-alcohol content - .627 percent – was the highest he’s ever heard of in his career, which spans more than two decades.
“It’s just amazing,” Warkentin said. “It’s just amazing the person was conscious, to be that high. Most people don’t make it above .3, they end up passing out.”
According to a North Liberty police criminal complaint, officers were dispatched to the area of Red Barn Drive at 10:05 p.m. July 29 for reports of a driver that was all over the road, hitting curbs and came to rest in a yard on Stone Creek Circle.
Police said a resident flagged down an officer to point out the driver, who was revving up his motor. The officer approached the driver – identified as 24-year-old Justin A. Clark – from the driver’s side of the car.
Clark was sitting in the driver’s seat and was unable to answer any of the officer’s questions, police said. He was also unable to get out of the vehicle, walk or perform field sobriety tests.
Police said when they asked Clark where he thought he was, he said he was at home and when they asked him what day it was he replied, “three, but now it is four.”
Clark submitted to a preliminary breath test, which showed he had a blood-alcohol content of .486 percent, well over the legal limit, .08 percent, to operate a vehicle in Iowa. Police transported Clark to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, where blood testing showed he had a blood-alcohol content of .627 percent.
Warkentin said the officer’s portable PBT reader is calibrated each month and was working correctly. Warkentin said he had no idea what Clark could have consumed to get a blood-alcohol content that was that high.
“Who knows,” he said. “I can’t answer that.”
Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said the highest blood-alcohol content he can recall is from a fatal crash that happened many years ago on Highway 218. The driver had a blood-alcohol in the .5 percent range.
“Six is just mind-boggling,” Pulkrabek said.
Clark has been arrested and faces a single count of drunken driving.
A North Liberty man has been arrested for driving with a blood-alcohol content nearly eight times the legal limit.
Police Chief Jim Warkentin said 24-year-old Justin A. Clark’s blood-alcohol content - .627 percent – was the highest he’s ever heard of in his career, which spans more than two decades.
“It’s just amazing,” Warkentin said. “It’s just amazing the person was conscious, to be that high. Most people don’t make it above .3, they end up passing out.”
According to a North Liberty police criminal complaint, officers were dispatched to the area of Red Barn Drive at 10:05 p.m. July 29 for reports of a driver that was all over the road, hitting curbs and came to rest in a yard on Stone Creek Circle.
Police said a resident flagged down an officer to point out the driver, who was revving up his motor. The officer approached the driver – identified as 24-year-old Justin A. Clark – from the driver’s side of the car.
Clark was sitting in the driver’s seat and was unable to answer any of the officer’s questions, police said. He was also unable to get out of the vehicle, walk or perform field sobriety tests.
Police said when they asked Clark where he thought he was, he said he was at home and when they asked him what day it was he replied, “three, but now it is four.”
Clark submitted to a preliminary breath test, which showed he had a blood-alcohol content of .486 percent, well over the legal limit, .08 percent, to operate a vehicle in Iowa. Police transported Clark to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, where blood testing showed he had a blood-alcohol content of .627 percent.
Warkentin said the officer’s portable PBT reader is calibrated each month and was working correctly. Warkentin said he had no idea what Clark could have consumed to get a blood-alcohol content that was that high.
“Who knows,” he said. “I can’t answer that.”
Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said the highest blood-alcohol content he can recall is from a fatal crash that happened many years ago on Highway 218. The driver had a blood-alcohol in the .5 percent range.
“Six is just mind-boggling,” Pulkrabek said.
Clark has been arrested and faces a single count of drunken driving.
