Police: Man Holding Pills, Booze Arrested After Gas Station Crash

An Ardmore man was arrested for DUI this weekend after police say he crashed into a pair of signs near a Havertown gas station.

According to court documents, a Haverford Township Police officer was on patrol on October 21 at 1:14 a.m. when he watched a silver Nissan Pathfinder that was heading north on W. Darby Road drift out of its lane and crash into two signs that were alongside the Oceanic gas station.

The SUV came to a brief stop in the gas station parking lot then started to pull away before the officer put on his lights and initiated a stop.

After the driver returned to his vehicle—police say he jumped immediately out of his car and had to be told to get back in several times before he complied—the officer approached the Nissan and noted its driver, a 27-year-old Ardmore man, smelled strongly of alcohol and had slurred speech and bloodshot eyes. When asked if he had been drinking, the man replied “no.”

The man then consented to and failed three field sobriety tests and was placed under arrest on suspicion of DUI. A subsequent search of his vehicle turned up a bag of blue pills—later identified as possible Xanax—and an open container of vodka. Police also found a tube from a pen in the vehicle, which the man later admitted to using to snort the Xanax pills.

The man was charged with DUI, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, careless driving, and an open container violation.