A New Jersey man was taken into custody on Feb. 14 hours after an alleged drunk driving incident in Sparta. According to police, the man and a friend returned to the site in the early morning hours and started pouring water on the road site.
According to the police, the men were taken into custody after a police officer noticed one of them walking on the road around 2:45 a.m. Both men are facing charges of driving while intoxicated while the man who police said hit a guardrail is charged with leaving the scene of a crash and not reporting it, failing to halt at a stop sign and disorderly conduct.
The initial accident reportedly happened on Sawmill and Woodport Roads when the late model BMW failed to stop and crashed into a guardrail. According to a police report, the driver left and returned with a friend several hours later in the other man's vehicle. Allegedly, the men poured water on the roadway from plastic containers they had in the car. Because of the low temperature, the water froze. Police say that the men wanted to create the illusion that black ice had caused the accident. After noticing one man walking around, police searched the second man's vehicle and found jugs containing water.
In an incident similar to this, it may be difficult to prove a driver was intoxicated at the time of the initial incident. Breathalyzer tests, used to document the blood alcohol content, reflect the driver's degree of intoxication when the test is taken. If the test is delayed, it may not reflect whether drunk driving was involved.
Speaking with an attorney may be beneficial since the attorney might review police records to determine if proper protocol was followed. If it was not, the attorney may challenge the charges in court.
Source: NJ.com, "N.J. man poured water on road to make it look like black ice caused his DWI crash, cops say," Jeff Goldman, Feb. 16, 2015