BEDFORD – A Bedford man was arrested on Sunday after a Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department Central Dispatch received a report of a property damage accident.
When police arrived at 4:13 p.m. they found a red car in a ravine and the male driver 63-year-old Michael Ledden, of Mitchell, standing along the road near the vehicle.
The vehicle a 2009 Nissan Altima had struck a tree and damaged a fence.
Ledden told deputies he wasn’t paying attention and ran off the roadway.
Ledden smelled of alcohol and performed poorly on field sobriety tests. He denied he had consumed any alcoholic beverages. He blew 0.180 on a portable breath test and agreed to submit to a chemical test at IU Health Hospital.
After the blood test and being medically cleared after complaining of chest pain, he was transported to jail on a charge of operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangerment.
Prior to the initial call for the property damage accident, dispatch received a report of a suspicious vehicle at 1743 Rariden Hill Road. The caller stated, “An older man with facial hair was stopped in the middle of the road and passed out behind the wheel”. That man was Ledden. The caller reported they knocked on the window of the 2009 Nissan Altima, and the driver woke up and drove off. Police responded but could not locate Ledden.
Dispatch then received a report of an erratic driver on Lawrenceport Road. The driver of a 2009 Nissan Altima, was driving on the wrong side of the road. Officers traveled down Mill Creek Road to Lawrenceport Road and through Tunnelton but could not find Ledden at that time.
