Drunk driver rolls car onto roof while escaping police in Parnu

TALLINN – A drunk driver escaping from a police patrol drove his car into a metal fence under the Papiniidu bridge in the southwestern Estonian resort town of Parnu on Thursday night, as a result of which the vehicle rolled onto its roof, the regional Parnu Postimees writes.

At 3 a.m., the alarm center received a call that a Volkswagen passenger car was driving near the Papiniidu bridge, the driver of which might be drunk. A police patrol went to look for the vehicle and found a car matching the description unmoving on the road, but when the driver noticed the police, the vehicle took off.

"The police followed the vehicle and signaled with flashing lights for the driver to stop, but the driver ignored this," Tonu Kivis, head of the area group of the Parnu police station, said. 

Under the Papiniidu bridge, the car hit a metal fence, after which it was thrown into the air and landed on its roof.

The police found only the driver in the car and helped him out of the vehicle. The patrol measured the alcohol level of the driver on the spot with an indicator device. The 35-year-old man who was behind the wheel had no external injuries, but the ambulance took him to the hospital for a medical examination, where no injuries were found.

The police will determine the exact circumstances of the incident in the course of proceedings.

Rescuers were also called to the accident site, who cleared the road of car pieces and other debris and waited for a tow truck, which removed the vehicle involved in the crash.