Suspected drunk driver found passed out in slow lane of Houston highway
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Drunk driving crashes are reaching epidemic levels in the Houston area.
Many cases of impaired driving go unnoticed unless they're caught on video.
Mikal Shamsi owns Pest Police and works overnight.
He was driving on the Southwest Freeway Sunday morning when he said he came upon a sleeping driver stopped in middle of the road.
"It was a Honda Civic parked in the slow lane, just stopped with his brake lights on," he said. "I look over to the side, and I can see that his seat is reclined all the way back."
Shamsi pulled over to help and called 911.
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"I tried to wake him up and banged on the glass, but he wouldn't wake up," he said.
Police eventually pulled the suspect, Luis Olguín, 31, from the car and arrested him on DWI charges.
It's just one case of a growing list in the region. Thankfully, this ended without injuries.
"Many times the perpetrators are the ones that end up surviving and the others do not," Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.
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Gonzalez pointed out a new push to fight back against impaired driving, which includes a multi-agency task force formed this year.
"We tackle some of these after-hours establishments where individuals are consuming way past the legal hour," he said.
Shamsi said while working overnight he's seen plenty of impaired drivers.
"They don't know where they're going. They're driving around town, and they're just confused, disoriented," he said.
People sleeping behind the wheel aren't even that uncommon. Barbara Guillory was accused of being asleep behind the wheel on the North Beltway just a week ago.
Like Olguín, she's lucky to still be alive
"I was like, 'You don't realize this now, but I just saved your life. You're going to go to jail, but you'll live to see another day,'" Shamsi said.
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