Drunken Driver Sparks Down Street Without Front Tires: Police

A patrolling Riverside police officer saw a car at 4:06 a.m. Nov. 29 throwing sparks as it went southbound on Harlem from 26th Street.

The car was moving well below the speed limit, and it had heavy front-end damage and missing front tires, according to Riverside police.

The officer stopped the car in the 2600 block of Harlem, and the driver told him he’d been in a crash, but he couldn’t remember exactly where, other than it was within a couple blocks of the traffic stop.

The driver, identified as Marco A. Nieves, 46 of the 5800 block of North Spaulding Avenue in Chicago, smelled of alcohol, according to Riverside police, and his speech was slurred, and his eyes were glassy.

Nieves failed all of the field sobriety tests he performed, and he was arrested for drunken driving, police reported. He told the Riverside officer he had been drinking before he started driving, but he refused a Brethalyzer test.

Riverside and North Riverside police officers searched the area for the crash location, and they found Nieves had hit a pole and fled the scene at Harlem and Cermak in North Riverside, police reported.

Nieves had blood on his shirt when he was stopped, but he refused medical assistance.

A background check shows Nieves was already currently suspended for a past DUI, in which he was arrested Aug. 22 by Elmwood Park police.

Riverside police contacted felony review and enhanced the charge to aggravated driving under the influence, a class 4 felony. He was also charged by North Riverside police for the hit-and-run crash. He was cited for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, failure to report an accident to police authority and operation of an uninsured motor vehicle.

Nieves’s criminal history includes 19 past arrests and convictions, including theft, assault, obstruction of justice, traffic offenses, burglary and damage to property, police reported.

Photo courtesy of Riverside police.