Police Dispatch

Good Grief

Sixth Street and Fourth Avenue, March 19, 12:13 a.m.

A woman who had been stopped under suspicion of driving drunk allegedly gave officers a hard time, a University of Arizona Police Department report said.

An officer pulled over Lourdes Quintana Vidal, 49, after she allegedly made two improper turns. She told the officer she had been showing her friend, a passenger in the car, around town.

The officer wrote that Vidal's speech was slurred, and her eyes were red, watery and bloodshot. He asked her if she had been drinking, and she reportedly replied, "I'm from Mexico." Vidal handed the officer a Sonora, Mexico, driver's license and said she had no Arizona license or identification card.

The officer told Vidal to turn off her engine and get out of her vehicle. Instead, Vidal allegedly drove off, stopping about a block away, after the officer yelled at her several times to pull over.

She reportedly laughed when asked why she had driven off.

Vidal finally exited her car, but refused to perform sobriety tests. She also claimed she only spoke Spanish; however, she told a Spanish-speaking Tucson Police Department officer who was summoned to communicate with her that she spoke English.

Authorities arrested Vidal for drunk driving, driving with a revoked license and failure to stop for law enforcement. They obtained a warrant and performed a blood draw on her a short time later. She was then taken to Pima County Jail and booked.


One Too Many

Magee Road and La CaÑada Drive, March 10, 2:22 a.m.

A driver who was allegedly drunk plowed into a backyard with her pickup truck, a Pima County Sheriff's Department report stated.

The report said an officer found the female driver of the truck lying on a chaise lounge by the swimming pool in the backyard. There was "extensive damage" to the backyard wall, the report stated.

The truck broke a Tucson Electric Power transformer box from its mooring, pushing it some 30 feet from its original place, and "completely severed" a Comcast Cable control box. "Loads of vegetation" and a pool pump were also destroyed by the impact, the report stated.

It appeared to the officer that the truck had been traveling at a speed of about 50 mph or greater. There were no brake marks, the officer noted, meaning the woman had likely plowed into the backyard at full force.

The woman reportedly admitted that she had probably had too much to drink and was on antidepressants.

An ambulance transported the driver, who had neither auto insurance nor registration for her truck, to University Medical Center. She possibly had a broken hip and several other fractures, and her eye was bleeding, the report said.