Routine Traffic Stop: Ohio Troopers Find Drunk Man Riding With Dead Passenger

LIMA, Ohio (The Blaze/AP) -- Ohio troopers say when they did a traffic stop on a pickup truck, they found the driver was riding with a dead man in the passenger seat.

Allen County Coroner Gary Beasley says it appears the man had been dead for hours when the State Highway Patrol pulled over the truck early Thursday in Lima (LY'-muh), in northwest Ohio. Beasley tells The Lima News his initial investigation found no evidence that the man died as a result of foul play.

A ruling on the cause of death will await autopsy findings.

“The driver was riding around with a dead man in the car,” Jamie Banks, who witnessed the traffic stop, told the Lima news. “No doubt about that.”

She then went into detail:

She said her 10-year-old niece was awakened by the sound of tires screeching. Banks said officers began conducting field sobriety tests on the driver of the 1988 Chevrolet pickup truck and went to check on the passenger. Banks said she assumed they were just going to assist the passenger, but when she looked outside again the passenger was stiff on the ground, his head, face and hands all a purple color and swollen.s

Lima patrol post commander Lt. Brant Zemelka says the driver of the pickup was charged with drunken driving and driving with a suspended license.

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Information from: The Lima News, https://www.limanews.com