BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office shared pictures to social media on Saturday from the arrest of a man accused of DUI after a smoky scene on U.S. 192 the previous evening.
Patrick Rinaldi, 60, was arrested Friday to face charges of driving under the influence and refusal to submit to DUI testing, records show.
Brevard County deputies responding to calls about “a car on fire driving on 192″ arrived to see Brevard County Fire Rescue actively working a brush fire that Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said was caused by a stopped, burning vehicle that Rinaldi had allegedly been driving.
The callers added that Rinaldi reportedly got back inside the vehicle and tried to drive off as it continued to burn, Ivey said in a statement.
“Callers stated the vehicle had stopped, but the driver, Patrick Rinaldi, got back in and began driving with heavy smoke coming from the vehicle!! After driving a short distance it stopped again, only now flames were taking over the vehicle, but Rinaldi just drove away again!!” the statement reads.
After stopping for what would be the final time, Rinaldi exited the vehicle once again and “was barely able to help his wife escape from the fire,” Ivey said.
Deputies now talking to Rinaldi reportedly noticed the smell of alcohol on his person and, later, located a bottle of liquor on the floorboard of the car, according to the statement. Rinaldi told the deputies that he only had one beer earlier, the statement reads.
“Rinaldi did give it the old ‘college try’ as a participant in the Drunk Olympics, but just couldn’t seem to manage some of the exercises and then even worse, he decided to refuse participation in the breath test,” Ivey said.
Rinaldi was booked around 8:30 p.m. Friday and was being held on $5,500 bond at the time of this writing, records show.