A Hollywood man was arrested last month after being found asleep at the wheel of his car, which was stopped in the middle of Interstate 95 with an unbuckled toddler in the passenger seat, Florida Highway Patrol said.
Benjamin Durant, 31, faces several charges from the Dec. 30 incident, including:
- Driving under the influence
- Child abuse without great bodily harm
- Driving with a suspended license
A trooper found Durant asleep in the driver's seat of a car in the center lane of northbound I-95 near Forest Hill Boulevard in West Palm Beach, FHP officials said.
The trooper allegedly noticed that the keys were still in the ignition and Durant's foot was on the brake. He also saw a 3-year-old boy sitting in the front passenger seat. There was no child seat in the car, FHP said.
"I identified myself to the driver and observed that he had the odor of an unknown alcoholic beverage emitting from his breath," the trooper wrote in a report. "I also observed that he had bloodshot, glassy eyes."
The trooper said Durant had trouble standing and was using the car to balance himself.
Durant agreed to a field-sobriety test, but he refused to submit to a breath sample, the report said.
The boy was turned over to his mother's custody, the report said.