A 35-year-old Minneapolis man was charged Friday with crashing his car while drunk into a pedal pub on Hennepin Avenue Bridge earlier this week, seriously injuring several passengers.
Mershon Leroy Corbett faces six counts of criminal vehicular operation for the Wednesday night collision that wounded a dozen of the 13 people on the pedal pub as it was heading into downtown.
According to a preliminary breath test at the scene, Corbett's blood alcohol concentration was at .21, more than twice the legal limit. Police also took a sample of Corbett's blood, but the toxicology results are still pending.
According to the complaint:
Just before 10 p.m. Wednesday, the pedal pub was traveling south on the bridge when witnesses told police they saw Corbett's Chevrolet Monte Carlo smash into the rear of the pedal pub without applying the brakes.
The pedal pub went through the air and landed on its side, trapping some people beneath it. After Corbett reversed his vehicle off the pedal pub, numerous people were able to lift the cart and free the trapped passengers.
When confronted by police, Corbett admitted that he had hit the pedal pub and that he had consumed alcohol before driving. Police noticed that Corbett's breath smelled like alcohol and that his eyes were bloodshot and glassy and his speech was slow. He also performed poorly on sobriety tests.
The most seriously injured passengers included a man with broken ribs and a bruised lung, another with a head injury and internal bleeding, a third with a broken clavicle and broken bones in his back and a woman with a head injury.
