While Andre Azor drove through the tunnel, the tires of his car struck the wall curb twice, and he crossed the double solid white line once, nearly hitting another car, police said.
JERSEY CITY -- A Palisades Park man has been accused of driving drunk through the Holland Tunnel from Manhattan to Jersey City, according to Port Authority police.
At around 5 a.m. this morning, Andre Azor, 58, struck a traffic cone with his 2015 red Camaro while entering the westbound entrance of the Holland Tunnel in Manhattan, Port Authority spokesman Joe Pentangelo said.
While Azor drove through the tunnel, the tires of his car struck the wall curb twice, and he crossed the double solid white line once, nearly hitting an adjacent vehicle headed in the same direction, Pentangelo said.
When Azor exited the tunnel in Jersey City, a police car that was following him activated its lights and siren at 14th Street and Marin Boulevard and used a loudspeaker to tell Azor to pull over, according to Pentangelo.
Azor ignored the command but after getting caught in traffic, drove a short distance on the shoulder of the roadway and stopped, Pentangelo said.
When an officer approached the car, he saw that Azor's eyes were glassy and red and could smell a strong odor of alcohol, police said. When the officer tried to interview Azor, "pieces of food" were "expelled" from Azor's mouth, according to police.
Azor said he was eating "nuts" and had had a few drinks, police said.
The officer found a Tropicana cranberry juice bottle containing several limes and an alcoholic beverage behind the driver's seat, along with a three-fourths empty bottle of Bacardi rum somewhere else in the car, Pentangelo said.
Azor then failed a field sobriety test and refused to take a breathalyzer test, police said, at which point he was arrested on the charges of driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, having an open alcoholic beverage in a vehicle and failure to comply.
Rhett Peppi, the officer who arrested Azor, arrested another man yesterday near the Holland Tunnel on the charge of driving while intoxicated, Pentangelo said.
Jonathan Lin may be reached at jlin@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @jlin_jj. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.