Wild, high speed chases are, unfortunately, not only in action movies. Just ask the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office. A “super drunk” driver from Allegan County led officers on a hair-raising chase recently that resulted in an arrest and DUI charges.

The driver, a 34-year-old man from Allegan County, was driving in Gobles on a Saturday night. Officers noticed that he was driving recklessly, and ran a stop sign without even pausing. A deputy attempted to pull the driver over at that point, but he was having none of it!

The driver took off at high speed down M-40, traveling southbound. Deputies pursued him, and the high speed chase continued reaching 70 mph at times.

Eventually, the driver took a sharp turn off the highway and pulled into a parking lot, where he stopped the car. But he then refused to get out when deputies approached and asked him to exit the vehicle.  The driver finally had to be forcibly removed from his car by the officers, who then handcuffed him and administered a breathalyzer test.

Inside the man’s vehicle officers found an empty whiskey bottle, along with two opened cans of beer. His BAC was 0.22, which puts him well above Michigan’s legal limit of 0.8, and well into the “super drunk” category.

Under Michigan law, any driver whose blood alcohol count is .17 or above is considered to be “super drunk”. This means that most of the penalties associated with a drunk driving conviction are doubled. More jail time, higher fines and longer probation periods following release.

In the case of this driver, it just happened to be his third drunk driving charge this year. Which means that he will likely be charged as a repeat offender. In addition, he is also facing charges of resisting arrest and driving on a suspended license.