In the Inner Richmond Thursday evening, a drunk driver piloting a white Ford Explorer made a series of unfortunate mistakes while trying to ditch out on the scene of a vehicle collision near Fourth Avenue and Geary Boulevard — not the least of which was his misguided attempt at using a Muni bus as a getaway vehicle. Even drunks should know by now that anyone with a healthy set of legs could easily catch up to a slow-plodding 31-Balboa.
As the Richmond Station police noted in their report, the string of unfortunate events started around 8:20 p.m. yesterday evening. (Well, really this started whenever this guy decided to get drunk and hop in the driver's seat, but we digress.) After the driver sped away from the first accident, he crashed again a few blocks away — this time, smashing in to the front of Roadside BBQ at Second Ave and Geary.
The driver backed the vehicle out of the restaurant and only made it a few more blocks to Second and Anza before he apparently realizing he was too wasted to function. Witnesses who had been following the suspects the whole time saw the driver and his passenger abandon the Ford at Second Ave and Anza before running up to Balboa Street to catch a Muni bus headed outbound towards Ocean Beach. Officers responding to 911 calls from the witnesses easily intercepted the bus when it stopped a block down at Third and Balboa.
Arresting officers determined the 29-year-old male driver had been driving under the influence on an already suspended license. His passenger was released.
