Police are pleading for people to stop drinking and driving after the lives of two kids were put in danger Tuesday morning.
Around 11:30 in the morning, troopers responded to a crash on I-695. Police say 52-year-old Ikemefule Chukwu from Essex was driving a van failed to yield to the right of way merging onto the inner loop from Route 40 in Rosedale, crashing into a truck.
"Officers on the scene quickly saw that the driver of this dodge van was exhibiting signs hat indicating he may have been operating under the influence," Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley said.
After field sobriety tests, Chukwu was arrested and issued 13 traffic citations related to DUI negligent driving and having his two young kids in the car.
"This is the really tragic part, we believe, of this story: that this individual was transporting two children, one age 3 and one age 10 months, in this vehicle while intoxicated and both were unrestrained," Shipley said.
Police said Chukwu told them he was driving a rental car and his kids car seats were in the vehicle getting worked on. No one was injured in the crash but police said it could have been much worse.
"People need to realize it endangers the lives of other motorists on the highway; it endangers the lives of the people in your own vehicle and it endangers your own life and there’s no excuse for it," Shipley said.
Shipley said Maryland state troopers arrest impaired drivers every day and make over 7,000 DUI arrests every year.
