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Video: Allegedly Drunk Driver Crashes Into Staten Island Cop's Backyard Pool
By
Nathan Tempey
Published Jun 14, 2016
Modified Jun 14, 2016
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By
Nathan Tempey
Published Jun 14, 2016
Modified Jun 14, 2016
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An allegedly drunk driver drove into an NYPD officer's backyard in Staten Island early on Monday morning, coming to a stop wedged under a deck and in the side of an aboveground pool. Officer Louis Mester lives at the foot of an exit ramp coming off of Korean War Veterans Parkway in Arden Heights in the borough's South Shore. He told reporters he was awoken at about midnight to a bang. Out back, a Volvo driver had smashed through a fence, taken out posts supporting the deck, and mangled a section of the pool.
"My wife was screaming, 'There's a car in the backyard,'" Mester told the Staten Island Advance.
The driver, Michael Spallieri, eventually made it out of the Volvo.
"He was stumbling around and you couldn't understand what he was saying," Mester told the paper. "He was moving around crazy, he couldn't stand still, couldn't keep his balance," he told NBC4.
On-duty cops eventually showed up and arrested Spallieri on drunk driving and criminal mischief charges, all misdemeanors. Spallieri got out on a $1,000 bail, and while NBC was filming at the property on Monday evening, he returned to make amends. Asked by a reporter if he was drunk when he crashed, Spallieri played it cool.
"I don't know," he said. "They're doing toxicology tests. I'll know Thursday or Friday."
Drivers often speed on the service road outside the backyard fence, Drumgoole Road East, according to Mester. The aggrieved officer told NBC that usually when drivers miss the curve coming off the parkway, they end up in the vacant lot next door. "I've lived here eight to 10 years, at least five times a car has landed in the lot," he said.
NYPD records show two crashes at the intersection in the last three years, one of which left a motor vehicle occupant injured. Mester said he has asked his local community board to request a guardrail outside of his house in the past, but gotten nowhere. The Department of Transportation now said it's reviewing a request he placed with the board Monday. In the meantime, he told NBC, he's not letting his kids in the backyard.
Tagged
arden heights
crash
department of transportation
drunk driving
guardrail
nypd
off duty cop
reckless driving
staten island
vision zero
Nathan Tempey
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