Around 3:50 a.m. on Sunday, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper spotted a Kia Sportage heading in the wrong direction on Interstate 275. The trooper tried to intercept by hitting the driver's side, but Margot McDaniels ignored the lights and sirens. Even after a PIT maneuver, she continued driving north in the southbound lanes until another collision brought her to a stop, according to ABC Action News,
The situation escalated when, despite the initial collision and the trooper's second successful PIT maneuver that forced her against a concrete barrier, McDaniels still tried to flee by reversing her vehicle, as reported by WTSP.
When confronted, McDaniels, who admitted to the officer that "she was a bartender and had just gotten a DUI two weeks prior", displayed "slow, slurred speech and smelled of alcohol," and she even refused to provide a breath sample multiple times; moreover, further charges piled on as she was found in possession of one pill of oxycodone, closing the case on a night of ill-fated decisions, according to the officer's affidavit obtained by WFLA. McDaniels now faces multiple charges including DUI with property damage, fleeing to elude, possession of a controlled substance, leaving the scene of a crash with property damage, and driving with a suspended license.
