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When Florida Highway Patrol officers pulled over an erratically swerving gray Camaro yesterday outside of St. Augustine, they figured they had a standard DUI on their hands. The driver, 63-year-old Leslie Richard Newton, had in fact been boozing and driving, the FHP says — but that’s not the main reason he was having trouble staying in his lane.
Newton had a piece of a traffic sign embedded in his skull.
It’s not entirely clear when the signage ended up in Newton’s head, but Jacksonville’s Fox30 reports he rammed into a sign earlier in the evening on eastbound SR 16 outside of St. Augustine.
Photos of his Camaro show a front headlight bashed in and some window damage; apparently Newton hit the sign hard enough for a chunk of it to fly into his cranium.
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Despite the grievous injuries, Newton kept driving, turning north onto US-1. That’s where the FHP eventually pulled him over; when they noticed the gruesome head wound, Newton was taken to a hospital in Jacksonville, where his injuries were deemed “life threatening,” Fox30 reports.
Riptide has called the FHP in St. John’s County to try to get more details on Newton’s case; we’ll update this post when we learn more.
But the FHP did make one thing clear to Fox30: They do “believe alcohol was a factor.”
Update: Read the full report:Ne
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