A few months in the workhouse is the sentence for a southern Minnesota man who was extremely drunk when he crashed head-on into a Twin Cities airport shuttle and left six people injured including two young children in his pickup.
Michael John Tindal, 33, of Austin was sentenced Monday in Hennepin County District Court after pleading guilty to four counts of criminal vehicular operation in connection with the high-speed collision on Jan. 30 — his birthday — on 34th Avenue S. near Interstate 494 in Bloomington.
Judge Sarah West set aside a 15-month prison sentence and ordered Tindal to six months in the county workhouse. West gave him credit for the nearly three months he spent in jail after his arrest. The judge tacked five years’ probation onto his sentence.
A law enforcement test of Tindal’s degree of intoxication found his blood alcohol content soon after the collision was 0.281%, more than 3½ times the legal limit for driving in Minnesota, the charges read.
Four people in the shuttle all suffered broken bones and other injuries, according to the criminal complaint. The most seriously injured passenger was found unconscious by police with a traumatic brain injury, the complaint noted.
In the pickup with Tindal were a 6-year-old nephew and a 3-year-old niece. The boy had a cut lip and glass shards in his hair, while the girl had “seat belt burns” on her neck and chest, the complaint read.
On Jan. 18, Tindal was pulled over in Mower County in his pickup after being spotted driving erratically on Hwy. 218. He pleaded guilty to fourth-degree drunken driving and was sentenced on Feb. 24 to a year’s supervised probation and 90 days in jail, but that time was suspended.
Because of that drunken driving arrest, Tindal was behind the wheel at the time of the crash after having his license revoked, the state Department of Public Safety disclosed.
