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Dangerous Driving
Man creates black ice using buckets of water to mask drink driving crash
Police said it took a half-ton of salt to melt the ice and make the road passable.
A MAN POURED water onto a freezing road to try to fool police officers into thinking the cause of his drunken car crash was black ice.
Twenty-year-old Bryan Byers, of Sparta, New Jersey, was arrested Saturday and charged with drink driving and other offences.
Authorities say he hit a guardrail after running a stop sign in a BMW early that morning.
Shortly after the crash, police said, 20-year-old Alexander Zambenedetti, a friend of Byers’, showed up in his own car.
The two men then dumped 5-gallon buckets of water onto the road to create black ice, police said.
Police said an officer on patrol in the area saw Byers walking in the road and Zambenedetti sitting in his vehicle with two buckets of ice in the back seat at around 2.45am.
Police say Zambenedetti wasn’t wearing a shirt despite a wind chill of 15 below zero. He was also charged with drunken driving.
Authorities say Byers confessed to the plan. They noticed skid marks were visible under the thin layer of ice at the intersection.
Both men are due in court Thursday.
Police said it took a half-ton of salt to melt the ice and make the road passable.
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