It was a New Year’s Eve gone bad in the case of a Conway man who was arrested just after midnight, Jan. 1, for driving while intoxicated.
Conway police responded to a one-vehicle accident on Locust Street around 12:33 a.m. after the driver of a 2008 Nissan Frontier crashed into a Conway Corporation utility pole before leaving the scene.
The driver, later identified as Andrew Pope, 26, was tailed by a witness who reported hearing a loud “boom” and noticed the truck leaving the scene.
According to the report, the utility pole was “shattered” and hanging only by the wires. Marks in the roadway indicated Pope was traveling south when he struck the pole. He then straightened out and drove through a yard before backing out onto Locust Street again.
An officer located the truck outside of an apartment complex at Pebble Beach Drive. According to the report, the vehicle suffered “extensive damage” to the passenger side door.
Pope then reportedly flagged the officer down to tell him that he couldn’t get into his apartment.
When questioned about the damage to the vehicle, Pope initially told police his truck had been struck in the parking lot of the complex, but later admitted he had been drinking at Buffalo Wild Wings and JJ’s Grill before he “decided to drive home.”
When the officer asked him if he hit the telephone pole on Locust Street, he reportedly replied that he couldn’t remember.
After failing field sobriety tests, Pope was taken into custody for DWI. At the police department, he reportedly refused to submit to a breath test.
Pope reportedly admitted to being drunk while en route to Faulkner County jail and said he was “planning to take a taxi home because he knew he was intoxicated.”
There were no other passengers in the vehicle at the time of the incident. Pope’s vehicle was towed from the residence.
He was cited for DWI, refusal to submit to a chemical test and leaving the scene of an accident with property damage.
(Megan Reynolds is a staff writer and can be reached by phone at 505-1277 or by e-mail at megan.reynolds@thecabin.net. Follow us on Twitter @LCDonline.)