Wrong-way driver travels nearly four miles before police stop him on Telegraph Road
A man driving the wrong way on Telegraph Road in Bloomfield Township was going 50 miles an hour in heavy traffic and nearly hit a motorcyclist before officers could get his attention and stop him, after a one-mile pursuit. He was headed the wrong way a total of about four miles total.
The Wixom man, 55, was arrested Sunday night after the Bloomfield Township Police Department received numerous 911 calls, the department said in a news release Wednesday.
The driver was first reported traveling southbound in the northbound lanes of Telegraph at Long Lake. An officer then spotted the driver near Quarton Road Lake and stopped northbound traffic as the motorist continued his wrong-way drive.
The driver in the white Volvo was going 50 miles an hour when he passed a police cruiser. After a short chase, he eventually pulled over, approximately four miles after he was first spotted driving in the wrong direction.
Officer Nick Soley said it is rare for a wrong-way driver "to travel this long in the wrong direction." He was pulled over on Telegraph near 14 Mile Road.
Video of the stop released by township police shows the unidentified man was unsteady on his feet during a field sobriety test, and his speech was slurred. Police said he admitted to drinking a bottle of $3.99 Bay Bridge wine. The Free Press found a 750 ML bottle of Bay Bridge Cabernet Sauvignon for $3.99 on the Kroger website.
A breath test revealed the driver's bodily alcohol content was over twice the legal limit at 0.18. The legal limit is 0.08. The driver was held at the Bloomfield Township Police Department overnight and was released with a citation requiring him to appear in court, typically in two weeks.
In the last week alone, the Bloomfield Township Police Department has arrested five impaired drivers.
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Accidents caused by wrong-way drivers are not uncommon. But what was uncommon in this case was how far the driver traveled going in the wrong direction, Soley said.
According to Michigan State Police, there were 229 crashes involving wrong-way drivers in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties in 2022, the most recent year available.
Here's a link to the videos from Bloomfield Township:
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Contact Jennifer Dixon: jbdixon@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Wrong-way driver going 50 mph on Telegraph Road in Bloomfield Township
