A New Jersey man was arrested for drunk driving last Monday after he struck a pedestrian and drove for more than a mile with the victim "halfway through" his car's windshield, police and prosecutors said according to The Smoking Gun.
Marcos Ortega, 33, was allegedly driving under the influence down Route 9 in Ocean Township when he struck the 61-year-old pedestrian on the road's shoulder, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said in a press release obtained by TSM.
Ortega drove on for another 1.5 miles until he was spotted by an officer responding to reports of an erratic driver in the area at around 7 p.m.
The officer saw "what appeared to be a person lying on the hood of the vehicle," prosecutors said. The cop initiated a traffic stop on the motorist and discovered "a person halfway through the vehicle's windshield."
Emergency responders arrived on the scene and extracted the victim, Kenneth Moeller of Lanoka Harbor, from Ortega's windshield. He was flown to Jersey Shore University Medical Center and is reportedly in critical condition.
Ortega, of Little Egg Harbor, failed a sobriety test and was charged with causing serious bodily injury to another while driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle crash, prosecutors said.
He was held at the county jail on $150,000 bail.
