'Don't get behind the wheel': Southfield freeway wrong-way driver in crash was suspected drunk

OAK PARK, Mich. (FOX 2) - A head-on crash on the Southfield freeway was caused by a wrong-way driver suspected to be drunk early Sunday morning.

The 39-year-old driver from Eastpointe was on the northbound side, but going southbound just after midnight. The head-on crash happened near Joy Road.

Luckily two people suffered only minor injuries.

The backstory:

"As troopers were heading out there, more 911 calls came in," said 1st Lt. Mike Shaw. "Finally, the last call was that there was an actual crash between two SUVs on the southbound side of the road.

"It was pretty obvious that that driver was impaired - so they conducted some field sobriety test transported them to get a blood draw and now we’re just waiting for those results come back and will send it off to the prosecutor for their review."

The driver failed the field sobriety tests, Shaw said. The charges will have to wait until the results of the blood test come back.

"The injuries were very minor to both drivers that were involved in there," Shaw said. "One passenger had some lower body injuries that required some hospitalization that day."

That passenger was a 30-year-old Detroit woman who was taken to a local hospital. A male driver from Detroit was not injured.  

"If you are drinking and smoking weed doing whatever it is that you do on your own personal time, just don’t get behind the wheel," Shaw said. "And you can take a bus, you can go on the Q-Line, you can take an Uber, you can take a Lyft. I don’t care if you get a piggyback ride by your buddy - don’t get behind the wheel impaired."

Good advice, especially since St. Patrick’s Day is just a week away.