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TAYLORSVILLE — A Unified Fire Authority investigator who police say was in the right place at the right time, may have prevented someone from being seriously injured by a drunk driver going the wrong way, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.
Sunday night, a Unified investigator was in a marked fire vehicle and was going down the off-ramp at 6200 South off I-215, when a vehicle started coming up the off-ramp towards him, according to a police booking affidavit.
Because the firefighter was in an emergency vehicle, he was able to turn his overhead lights on and use his vehicle to block the oncoming car from getting on the freeway, said UHP Sgt. Cameron Roden. A UHP trooper was then called to the scene to assist.
"I arrived on scene and saw the vehicle facing wrong way northbound up the southbound off-ramp," the affidavit states.
The trooper reported detecting an odor of alcohol on the man, who was an alcohol-restricted driver, according to the UHP. The man took a Breathalyzer test which registered his blood-alcohol content at 0.143%, or nearly three times the legal limit, the affidavit states, and an 8-year-old boy was also found unrestrained in the back seat.
Jose Luis Apolinar, 20, was arrested for investigation of DUI going the wrong way on the freeway, DUI with a passenger under 16 in the car, being an alcohol-restricted driver, and failing to properly restrain a child in the car.
Alpolinar was convicted of impaired driving in May and had all but two days of a six-month jail sentence suspended, according to court documents.
