Suspected drunk driver flips car

A suspected drunk driver overturned his car after leaving a restaurant around midnight Thursday.

Witnesses told a deputy investigating the Whitman Road and Broad Street crash that they saw the car leave the parking lot of Zip's Restaurant without turning on headlights.

The car began to swerve "severely" before veering off onto the shoulder and rolling over. The driver was trapped in the car, so firefighters had to use a pneumatic saw on the windshield to free him.

The driver, Francis Cole, wasn't injured from the crash, but the deputy said he noticed Cole had slurred speech and bloodshot eyes. Cole insisted his girlfriend was driving, but when asked where she was, the suspect said she was at her house, a report states.

The deputy doubted there was any other driver, given that witnesses had seen no one leave the car after it crashed and that Cole had been trapped in the car.

Asked if he had any alcohol to drink that night, Cole reportedly replied that he had drunk $27.50 worth of Bacardi and Coke at the restaurant. Field sobriety tests were skipped because Cole couldn't keep his balance, the deputy said.

Cole, 45, was taken to the county jail on suspicion of DUI, DUI with property damage and driving on a suspended license. He reportedly supplied a blood alcohol level of .226; Florida law presumes intoxication at .08.