CATAWBA CO., N.C. — A man is facing multiple charges after being arrested in Catawba County on Sunday, according to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol (NCSHP).
[ ALSO READ: 21-year-old arrested for DWI after deadly motorcycle crash on I-85 in west Charlotte ]
Troopers told Catawba County bureau reporter Dave Faherty that they arrested Ricardo Padilla Perez and charged him with multiple counts of hit-and-run crashes and one count of driving while intoxicated.
They say he was driving south in northbound lanes on NC 321 early Sunday morning.
“He kept on going,” a witness told Channel 9. “He kept on going. Just speeding and then stopping. And then we tried honking and everything and he wouldn’t stop. They had to do something because there were cars coming and trucks still coming.”
Witnesses said they saw sparks coming from the truck where two of the tires had been flattened in the earlier wrecks.
The NCSHP says they performed a pit maneuver on Perez’s pickup truck which caused him to wreck near the Catawba and Lincoln County lines.
Perez blew a 0.15 during a breathalyzer test—almost twice the legal limit, officials said.
Two people were hurt near the River Road exit, just 11 miles north of where troopers stopped Perez.
The NCSHP says at least two people were sent to the hospital for earlier crashes in Catawba County.
This is a developing story; check back at wsoctv.com for updates.
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