A woman believed to be driving while impaired was arrested after her car was found on the side of the road with a smoking hot tire.
Lisa Marie McMinn, 55, of Zephyrhills, was driving a gray Mercury Grand Marquis on Thursday night on U.S. 301 when dispatchers received a report of a reckless driver, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
A deputy found the vehicle pulled to the side of the road with its hazard lights activated at U.S. 301 at County Road 478 at Bushnell.
McMinn had to “prop” herself up against the vehicle and “stumbled” when she attempted to walk.
“The vehicle was running and the rear tire was on the rim still smoking,” the deputy wrote in the report.
McMinn said she had “run out of gas and noticed she was missing a tire.” She was “distraught.”
It appeared she was impaired. She agreed to take part in field sobriety exercises, but performed poorly.
A search of the vehicle turned up Alprazolam, methadone which had been prescribed to McMinn and her late husband and a THC vape cartridge that tested positive for THC.
She provided a breath sample that registered .000 blood alcohol content. She refused to provide a breath sample. A check revealed she was driving on a suspended license. She was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center on $4,000 bond.
