It was almost midnight Wednesday at the gas station near McDonald’s at Old Kings Road and Palm Coast Parkway. A 33-year-old woman noticed something amiss about a man at the wheel of a reddish-maroon Chevy pick-up. The man pulled off the side of the road near McDonald’s, sat there a while, then went into the McDonald’s lot, then came back out near the stop sign, idling. He then turn right onto Old Kings and drive off.
The woman decided to follow him. She was going 45 but noticed the truck speeding. Then, according to her account of the incident to a Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy, she saw the truck strike the guardrail and flip. The truck rolled and landed on the passenger side, facing the road. She called 911 and went to help the man out of the truck, as other passers-by stopped to do likewise. There was no one else in the pick-up.
That’s not what Douglas Weaver, the man at the wheel of the truck, would tell deputies moments later. Weaver, a 45-year-old resident of Ullman Place in Palm Coast, claimed he had not been driving. Someone else was driving, he claimed, but that person had supposedly run off. When a deputy asked Weaver who the driver was, Weaver said he didn’t know, only that he’d been at Salsa’s, the restaurant, earlier.
But Weaver had apparently misled authorities: there was no other driver, and a firefighter got hurt as a result of Weaver’s claim.
The crash took place on Old Kings Road at Oak Trail Road, involving Weaver’s 2017 Chevy Silverado. It caused Old Kings Road to be closed for more than two hours in both directions (the Palm Coast Fire Police regulated traffic). And it resulted in Weaver’s arrest: he had been allegedly driving drunk. He was not injured and declined medical attention.
The deputy who conducted the field-sobriety tests reported smelling a strong odor of alcohol from Weaver, who failed the various step of the field exercises. At the county jail, Weaver refused to provide a breath test.
He was booked at 2 a.m. and released at 1 p.m. today on $1,000 bond.
hawkeye says
what a schmuck
Really says
Dont drive impaired
Daphne says
Mandatory jail, one year loss of license, followed by mandatory 6mo rehab, to be paid back via wage garnishment. Punishment should include community service at the morgue/cemeteries/jails, , mandatory driving from a pool of others convicted of DUI/DWI. Make these impaired drivers work off their rehab costs and pay it forward by driving others who’ve lost their driving privileges!
palmcoaster says
What a danger in our streets…Brave lady following the driver, because Sheriff always tell us not to endanger ourselves following suspicious dudes at the steering wheel. But I guess we are getting tired of seeing DUI and or drug dealers and users speeding among us with flying colors! Would be nice to see our sheriff cruisers posted while not driving around, along Palm Coast Parkway or near those meth lab deemed known houses next door to families with children and elderly’s, who’s criminal neighbors (as described by sheriff investigator’s) and we all know, are trafficking day and night. Sometimes I wonder if would not better to legalize these drugs to stop the myriad of criminal dangerous traffickers in and out day and night next door. With this prohibition I guess they are protecting the druggies not to overdose maybe? At this point who cares as is their choice and is nothing we can do when drug courts let them free on bail or probation in our community to go back into the same old.
The latest raid in Coolidge Ct., C section of Palm Coast is proof of years of hosting and bailing felons by the owner as the public record shows.
Richard says
This guy is a real Jamoke! Lying to a LEO and first responder’s to transfer blame onto a ghost. Shouldn’t
this be a felony especially after it caused an injury and loss of time on the job?
Sky says
I think he should stay in jail. He put so many people at risk.
Dantel says
He was so intoxicated he thought his mug shot was his drivers license photo !