A Salt Springs man was charged with drunk driving after a single-vehicle crash in Ocala on Tuesday afternoon.
A witness told an Ocala Police officer he saw a black 2001 Ford Explorer run off the end of the roadway on NW 35th Street Road and crash into the dirt embankment. The witness said he made contact with the driver and sole occupant, 48-year-old Christopher Paul Littleton, who said he didn’t want any help and seemed “out of it,” according to the police report.
The officer observed the vehicle had front end damage from where it had struck a large lime rock and the embankment. He then caught up with Littleton, who by that time was laying in the back seat of the Explorer. Littleton had a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from him and he was slurring his words noticeably as he spoke, the report said.
Littleton, who was previously convicted of DUI in July 2008, failed several field sobriety exercises. He told the officer he knew he shouldn’t have been behind the wheel of the Explorer because he had been drinking and that the officer should just take him to jail, according to the report.
Littleton was charged with DUI with property damage (second offense) and taken to the Marion County Jail, where a breath test returned readings of .224, .184, and .228. He’s being held on $5,000 bond and will appear in Marion County Court on July 8.