New Jersey ambulance driver responds to emergency call drunk
A Northwest New Jersey volunteer ambulance driver was arrested Wednesday night after he responded to an emergency call drunk, according to police.
James Rigney Jr., 39, a member of the all-volunteer First Aid and Rescue Squad in the small town of Hackettstown in Warren County, NJ, drove to an emergency call around 9 p.m. with a blood alcohol content of .08, according to Hackettstown Police Sgt. Darren Tynan.
Tynan said an officer at the scene “noticed that the ambulance drove past where the medical call was, the ambulance then turned around at some point and then entered the wrong way into the complex.”
The officer on scene then detected an odor of alcohol on Rigney’s breath. Rigney refused to perform a field sobriety test, but officers gazed his eyes for clues.
Rigney was charged with driving while intoxicated, driving while intoxicated in a school zone and careless driving. The emergency squad is investigating the incident, but no decisions have been made, Tynan said.
Follow me on Twitter @tommyrowan
