24-Year-Old Man Arrested for DUI After Crashing Into a Cranston Police Cruiser

24-Year-Old Man Arrested for DUI After Crashing Into a Cranston Police Cruiser

Colonel Michael Winquist, Chief of the Cranston Police Department, said on Saturday that a Middletown man was arrested for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) early in the morning after striking a Cranston Police marked cruiser.

Saturday at 12:26 a.m., a Cranston Police Officer who was operating a marked cruiser on patrol and stopped at traffic light that had turned red at the intersection of Park and Elmwood Avenue when he was suddenly rear-ended by a white Nissan Altima that had been traveling west on Park Avenue. Neither the officer nor the operator of the Nissan was injured as a result of the crash.

While speaking to the operator of the vehicle that struck him, the officer recognized signs of alcohol impairment. An open bottle of vodka was also seized from the front passenger floorboard of the car.

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A second officer arrived and administered a series of field sobriety tests which the operator failed.  The operator, identified as Clay R. Sinatra, age 24, of 32 West View Road, Middletown, RI was placed under arrest for Operating a Motor Vehicle While Under the Influence of Intoxicating Liquor and/or Drugs. He was transported to Cranston Police Headquarters where he refused to submit to a breathalyzer test.

Sinatra was held overnight and will be arraigned by a bail commissioner on a charge of DUI. He will also receive traffic citations for Refusal to Submit to a Breath/Chemical test and Presence of Alcoholic Beverages While Operating or Riding In Motor Vehicles.