Police: Man blames bad driving on spilled beer

[September 10, 2008]  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- A man with four previous drunken driving convictions who was stopped for weaving in and out of traffic on Interstate 40 was ready with an excuse for his poor driving: his passenger spilled his beer.

Not surprisingly, the man was arrested just before midnight Saturday, said state police officer Kurtis Ward, who said he initially thought the driver was joking.

o"He was so matter of fact about it, like it wasn't a big deal," Ward said.

The 31-year-old man was allegedly too drunk to perform field sobriety tests and was arrested on aggravated drunken driving charges, court records said.

Ward found four opened bottles of beer in the car, court records showed.

It was the man's sixth DWI arrest. He had been found guilty of four of five previous drunken driving charges and has paid $1,750 in fines, the DWI Resource Center said.

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Information from: Albuquerque Journal, http://www.abqjournal.com/

[Associated Press]

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