By Sean Bailey / Staff Writer
Wednesday afternoon saw the arrest of two intoxicated drivers in Williamsburg — something that Public Affairs Officer Shawn Jackson said, thankfully, isn’t too common in Williamsburg.
“A DUI on the day shift is not as common as it is on the night shift but to see two back-to-back with the person so highly under the influence is uncommon, but we were fortunate to get them off the road, to save their lives and everybody else’s,” Jackson said.
Early Wednesday afternoon, Jackson said Williamsburg Police were dispatched to the parking lot of a medical office on Highway 25W. According to the caller, the driver of a pick-up truck appeared to be highly under the influence and was attempting unsuccessfully to pull out of the parking lot.
According to Jackson, Williamsburg Police Officer Brad Boyd had to pull in front of Mark Meadows, 20, of Williamsburg, to prevent Meadows from making his way onto Highway 25W.
Meadows was charged with driving under the influence second offense, driving on a DUI suspended license and no insurance. His passenger, Eddie Pennington, 47, of Williamsburg was also charged with alcohol intoxication and prescription controlled substance not in proper container.
Jackson was assisting Boyd at the scene when dispatch called Jackson to advise him they had received calls about a second intoxicated driver.
Campbell County, Tenn. dispatch had received as many as eight calls on someone driving extremely erratically north on Interstate 75 and contacted Whitley County officials to warn that the driver was headed in their direction.
“Before I could even get out to the interstate to stop her, we got two or three complaints to our dispatch center about the driver,” Jackson said.
Jackson said he observed the driver, Natalie D. Horne 29, of Fairview, N.C. traveling at a high rate of speed and swerving from “side to side.”
Jackson pulled Horne over near the 12 mile marker on I-75. Jackson said Horne had slurred speech and was “very unsteady on her feet.” Jackson said Horne registered a .191 on a breathalyzer test, more than twice the legal limit of .08.
“To the best of my knowledge she doesn’t have any sort of criminal record. She could not understand why she was going to jail. She claims she had nothing to drink since the night before, but I don’t think that’s possible,” Jackson said.
Officer Mike Taylor assisted in the second arrest.
All three people arrested Wednesday were lodged in the Whitley County Detention Center.
“I feel like getting those two drivers off the road, though they were probably upset, but at the same time it might have saved their life or somebody else’s,” Jackson said.
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