A Lady Lake man was arrested early Sunday morning and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs after a two-vehicle crash in Ocala.
When officers arrived at the incident at the intersection of W Silver Springs Blvd. and N Pine Ave. shortly before 1:30 a.m., they found a black pickup truck overturned on its roof and a black Toyota Camry crashed in the middle of the intersection. An officer made contact with 30-year-old Christopher Stephen Porter, who was driving the Camry and was determined to be at fault in the crash, an Ocala Police report states.
A witness reported that Porter failed to yield to traffic traveling northbound with a green light when making a left turn eastbound on Pine Ave toward E Silver Springs Blvd.
While speaking with Porter, the officer observed the odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath. He also noticed that he was stumbling and swaying and then conducted five field sobriety tests, which Porter failed, the report says.
Porter refused to give a breath sample and was taken into custody. The officer said after placing him in his patrol vehicle, he smelled a heavy concentration of an alcoholic beverage coming from the back seat. He then found a small, empty bottle of Fireball cinnamon whiskey just outside the door of Porter’s damaged vehicle, the report says.
Porter was booked into the jail shortly before 3:30 a.m. and released about 12 hours later on $2,000 bond. His next court date hasn’t yet been set, jail records show.