Dover woman arrested for DUI after driving on wrong way of I-75 in Tampa: FHP
TAMPA, Fla. - A Hillsborough County woman was arrested for driving the wrong way on I-75 while driving under the influence early Monday morning, according to authorities.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, at around 1:55 a.m. on Monday, a trooper was parked within a construction lane closure on I-75 South near mile marker 256 in Hillsborough County. He then was alerted to a wrong-way driver traveling north in the southbound lanes.
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The work zone had a survey crew on the ground as the wrong-way driver was approaching, so the trooper drove south past the crew to find an SUV approaching.
According to FHP, the trooper then turned on his emergency lights and sirens and placed his patrol car in the direct path of the car to stop it. The SUV slowly moved around the trooper but then stopped due to oncoming traffic coming from the north.
The trooper then pulled up behind the SUV and conducted a precision immobilization technique (PIT), successfully stopping it in the middle of the southbound lanes of I-75.
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Troopers then removed the driver from the car and removed the SUV from the road, according to FHP. They identified the driver as Luz Del Carmen Munoz Banuelos, 37, of Dover.
When asked why she was driving on the wrong side of the road, she said she was just following her GPS. Troopers observed she had bloodshot, watery, and glassy eyes and a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on her breath.
She performed poorly on field sobriety exercises, according to FHP, and was arrested for fleeing to elude and DUI. She was booked in the Orient Road Jail.