An Ocala woman was arrested Sunday after getting her white Mercedes stuck on a railroad track in Summerfield after leaving The Villages.
Marion County sheriff’s deputies responded to the 7000 block of S.E. 147th Street and located the vehicle “stuck well off of the roadway.” Deputies made contact with a Marion County Fire Rescue paramedic, who advised that when they arrived, 20-year-old Maria Fernanda Vazquez-Rogero was sitting in the driver’s seat of the Mercedes, which was running. The paramedic said Vazquez-Rogero exited the vehicle and re-entered it. The paramedic also told deputies that Vazquez-Rogero wasn’t coherent and “appeared to be under the influence of alcohol,” a sheriff’s office report states.
The report notes that Vazquez-Rogero didn’t contact law enforcement to advise them that her vehicle was on the tracks. Deputies observed Vazquez-Rogero on her phone but she was speaking with her sister and they had to have dispatchers alert CSX to stop all trains or divert them, the report says.
Deputies spoke with Vazquez-Rogero, who said she was driving her vehicle to Belleview from The Villages when she got stuck on the tracks. Deputies noted that as Vazquez-Rogero spoke, they could smell the strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from her mouth. They also noted that her words were slurred and mumbled, the report says.
Vazquez-Rogero denied consuming any alcoholic beverages. She was unable to locate her driver’s license inside the vehicle but a deputy was able to find it in the identification holder inside her pink Coach purse. After a computer check, deputies confirmed that she only had a learner’s license.
Deputies invited Vazquez-Rogero to participate in field-sobriety exercises, which she agreed to do. She struggled through them and asked for “more room” before failing to recite the alphabet correctly, the report says.
During the incident, a CSX train was forced to stop until Vazquez-Rogero’s vehicle was cleared from the track.
“Had this agency’s dispatch not notified CSX of the railroad interference, undoubtedly there would have been a crash,” the report reads.
Vazquez-Rogero, who lives in the 13200 block of S.W. 2nd Street in Ocala, was placed under arrest and transported to the Marion County Jail, where she provided breath samples that showed 0.15 and 0.148 blood alcohol content. She was then charged with driving under the influence of alcohol (.15 or higher). She was released Sunday night on $3,000 bond and her next court date hasn’t yet been set, jail records show.