Man Jumps Off Bridge To Escape DUI, Rescued By Police

Drinking and driving is stupid enough, it’s even worse when the driver thinks he can flee from police by jumping off a bridge into choppy waters. That’s what happened in an area around New Orleans this week when 44-year-old Thomas Robert Harter was pulled over for a DUI.

The man was stopped on Sunday at 5:40pm by police after another motorist reported that his car was swerving all over the bridge.

Police were preparing to give Harter a sobriety test on the Causeway Bridge which runs over Lake Pontchartrain when the man suddenly leaped over the side of the structure, splashing down 20 feet later into a rough patch of water.

According to police Harter exited his vehicle with his arms waving in the air. Police say the man smelled of alcohol and he was swaying as they approached.

When asked to perform the field sobriety test Harter agreed but then “bolted” away from officers and jumped off the structure.

Adding to rough waters were high winds which could have killed the drunk driver if he had not grabbed onto a utility building at the base of the bridge.

After being pulled out of the 60-degree water he was arrested by police and booked into custody.

In what perhaps might be the best case for a life imprisonment sentence we have ever discovered it turns out that Thomas Robert Harter has now been arrested eight times for drunk driving.

Do you think an eighth drunk driving charge should land Harter behind bars for the rest of his life?