Intoxicated driver causes power outage

LONGVIEW - An intoxicated driver crashed into a utility pole and caused a power outage in Longview on Tuesday.

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Intoxicated Driver Causes Power Outage

On Monday November 23, 2009 at around 8:28 p.m., Longview Officers were
dispatched to a motor vehicle accident in the 1700 block of Cotton Street, where it was reported that a car had hit a utility pole.

Officers arrived and found that 22-year-old Elizabeth Ashley Pitts had left the roadway in her 2008 Dodge Charger and struck a utility pole located at Cotton Street and MLK Street. As officers investigated, they found Pitts to be intoxicated and that she had a one year old child in the car with her at the time of the accident.

Neither Pitts, nor the child, were seriously injured during the crash and Pitts was taken into custody for suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Pitts was taken to a local hospital for a mandatory blood draw, but while at the hospital, Pitts became combative with hospital staff and spit in the face of a Longview Officer.

After the blood draw, Pitts was arrested and booked into the Gregg County Jail for driving while intoxicated with a child in the vehicle (State jail felony) and harassing a public servant (3rd degree felony).

The accident caused a power outage for area residents for over an hour and also caused streets to be completely closed.