Huffing and Driving in Wyoming

From the Cody Enterprise in Wyoming:

Yesterday, a 22 year old male driver was arrested “for leaving the scene of an accident, failure to give information, interference with a police officer, probation violation and DWUI.”

A woman called the police Thursday evening to say her car was hit by another vehicle which then drove away. En route, police learned it also hit an unoccupied vehicle and a bystander directed the police to an apartment building.

The police report notes that one officer saw the driver “peering out the back of the residence and throwing things from the window.” When he refused to open the door, they had to use a “breaching ram to open an apartment door to arrest him.”

The officer also reported a “distinct odor of alcohol coming from his body, and breath tests reported a blood alcohol content of .03, a violation of his parole.”

Inside the apartment police found a receipt for computer cleaning spray that the man had purchased from Wal-Mart only eight minutes before. They also found a can that the man’s girlfriend “reportedly tossed in a dumpster after police left the apartment.”

“In the detention center, officers recorded him asking his girlfriend what happened. She told him he hit three cars. He told her he “must have blacked out.” He said he remembered the air bags deploying and then driving home.”

The article also references previous “huffing and driving” cases in Cody, Wyoming. In January an 18 year-old man admitted he had been huffing computer dusting spray when he blacked out. He hit the entrance sign at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center Museum which will cost $69,000 to repair. He pleaded guilty to DUI-controlled substance, his second.

In September 2007 another 18 year old driver was also caught huffing computer dusting spray while driving. He was sentenced to 150 days in jail with 120 days suspended on a reckless driving charge.