SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – A woman who was allegedly intoxicated and texting while driving caused an accident that left many residents in eastern and southern Shelbyville without power for almost an hour on Wednesday night.
According to police, Cara Elizabeth Countzler lost control of her Chevrolet Impala on Birch Street near her home on Tremont Drive around 9 p.m.
"I was texting while driving," she told officers. Countzler also told police she had been drinking four hours prior to the accident, and according to officer Chris Vest, Countzler was charged with a DUI.
Upon impact, Countzler's car snapped a utility pole in half. A large transformer was attached to the pole.
"We had 2,089 accounts out for 25 minutes," Shelbyville Power System general manager David Crowell said, according to the Shelbyville Times-Gazette. "We had to change a pole at the accident site and 63 accounts were out from 9:30 p.m. until 2:15 a.m."
The hit also caused her car to overturn and land on its roof. Countzler was able to crawl from the wreckage and told police she wasn't hurt.
"She was coming down Birch, ran off the left side of the road and then off the right side," Vest said.
Countzler appeared to have trouble during a field sobriety test. She did not understand instructions, which led to her arrest for DUI. It was her first offense.
The paper reported that Bedford County Jail records show Countzler posted $3,000 bond on the DUI charge and was cited for texting while operating a motor vehicle and violation of the financial responsibility law.
The texting law, co-sponsored by Sen. Jim Tracy of Shelbyville, went into effect in 2009.
