Woman Accused Of Drunk Driving ... On Cold Medicine

A 22-year-old West Bend woman was arrested for suspicion of drunk driving, but she never drank a drop of beer or liquor, according to a report by the Caledonia Police Department.

Police suspect the woman took enough cough medicine recreationally to impair her driving at 12:15 a.m. Thursday on Highway V at Northwestern Avenue.

Police arrested the woman for suspicion of drunk driving, operating left of center and making an unsafe lane deviation, according to a report by the Caledonia Police Department.

Officers received a report of a reckless driver who was driving a silver Ford pickup truck. They found the truck parked in the middle of the intersection at Parkshire Drive and County Trunk K.

Police suspected the woman was drunk because she slurred her speech and moved slowly. They asked the woman to get out of the truck and when she did, she “stumbled backwards and nearly fell down.”

The woman told police she and the other three passengers in her car were on their way to a residence in West Bend. The woman told police she didn’t use drugs or medication, and she had her last drink an hour prior to the stop.

The officer performed a field sobriety test, and the officer noted in the report that: “Her balance and stepping was so uncoordinated and sloppy that I (the officer) felt making her complete the test would be a serious risk to her safety.” During another test, the woman was asked to count, but she stood there thinking and the officer reported that he believed she was counting in her head. The officer asked her to count out loud, but she stood there “thinking” again. When the officer asked her why she wasn’t counting, she told the officer she was “trying to ‘get into it.’”

The woman’s blood-alcohol level was .00, but she was arrested for drunk driving for driving under the influence of the medication. 

When the police asked the other three passengers to get out of the car, they found boxes of over the counter cold medicine.

A 23-year-old Jackson woman, 20-year-old West Bend woman, and 34-year-old West Bend man — all of whom were passengers in the car — were all taken into police custody on a probation/parole hold. All three had slurred speech and had poor balance as well, and they told police that they had taken cold medicine, according to the report.

Learn more about medication abuse.