Police: Motorist drunk, texting while driving on Hwy. 12

For the second time in as many months, a tip from a motorist helped police catch a drunken driver on a stretch of Hwy. 12 in the west metro.

On Thursday, a motorist spotted another driver weaving across the lanes during the afternoon commute and called police. It turned out the driver was not only drunk, but texting at the same time, authorities said.

Police used the caller's description of the vehicle to find the driver. An officer tailed the suspect, then stopped a 49-year-old man from Dassel, after watching him cross the centerline into oncoming traffic and nearly causing a head-on crash about a mile west of County Road 92 in Independence, said West Hennepin Public Safety Chief Gary Kroells.

The driver admitted to drinking and registered a 0.12 percent blood alcohol concentration when police administered a breath test. He was arrested at 4:10 p.m. and is expected to be charged with fourth-degree drunken driving. He also told authorities he was weaving because he was texting his wife, Kroells said.

"Thank you to the caller for calling in on 911, staying behind the car, giving the license plate and description, and alerting us to this dangerous situation," Kroells said. "We need everyone to help in keeping our roads safe."

A photo posed by the sheriff on social media showed part of a six-pack of beer the driver had in the vehicle.

On Feb. 18, law enforcement acted on a tip from the public to arrest a 28-year-old Eden Prairie man who was driving drunk on Hwy. 12 in the middle of the afternoon in Maple Plain.

"The drunks and the texters are killing people everyday, stop it people," wrote Perry Begin on the West Hennepin Public Safety's Facebook page. He was one of many expressing outrage.

Thursday's incident comes as law enforcement and citizens are pushing for safety upgrades to the two-lane highway that winds through western Hennepin County and has seen its share of fatal crashes in recent years. Over the past five years, there have been 811 crashes on a 38-mile section of the highway that runs between Wayzata and through Wright County. That had led to 16 deaths while 239 people have been injured, according to state Department of Public Safety statistics.

Hwy. 12 was built in the 1930s and now carries more than 15,000 vehicles a day, by the most recent counts from the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

This week, officials with the Hwy. 12 Safety Coalition went to the State Capitol to make their pitch in support of a bill authored by Rep. Jerry Hertaus that would authorize the state to sell $15 million in bonds. Proceeds would be used to realign intersections at County Roads 92 and 90, and put in a concrete median barrier between Wayzata Blvd. and County Road 6.