Mayor Falls Asleep in Drive-Thru, Crashes Cadillac

Kentucky mayor failed field sobriety test
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 3, 2020 8:45 AM CST
Mayor Charged With DUI After Falling Asleep in Drive-Thru
Police say the mayor was unable to walk in a straight line during a field sobriety test.   (Getty Images/z1b)

A Kentucky mayor crashed her silver Cadillac into a utility pole after falling asleep in the drive-thru line at a White Castle, police say. Beverly Chester-Burton, mayor of the Louisville suburb Shively, was charged with driving under the influence after the incident Tuesday night, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports. Police say they smelled alcohol on her breath when they spoke to her. She refused a blood test and failed multiple field sobriety tests, according to a citation. Police say the 59-year-old mayor told officers she had hit the pole because her accelerator got stuck and she was trying to avoid hitting other vehicles, WDRB reports.

Witnesses, however, told police that she had been asleep in the drive-thru line and people knocked on her window to try to wake her up. The witnesses said Chester-Burton rear-ended a truck, causing it to hit the vehicle in front of it, before hitting the pole on her way out of the parking lot. The mayor initially told police she had two apple martinis with dinner at 5pm, but later admitted it had been closer to 9pm, around two hours before the crash, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader. (More Kentucky stories.)

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