Published: November 24, 2009 10:21 pm      

Driver who hit home charged with DUI

BERLIN — A Florida man whose classic car smashed into a house in Berlin was charged Tuesday with drunken driving.

Borough police charged Richard Charles Ross, 58, of Lakeland, Fla., with driving under the influence of alcohol, speeding, disorderly conduct, careless driving and public drunkenness.

According to a court document, Ross told police he was driving on Main Street at 1:20 a.m. Nov. 14 when his glasses fell off, causing him to crash the car into a house on Main Street.

Ross then used obscene language and began banging his head on the vehicle, police said.

Police said Ross stated he had been drinking all day, met a woman and took her for a drive in his 1979 Excalibur Phaeton. The woman, whose name was not given, ran down Diamond Street after the crash.

No one was injured in the crash.

Police took Ross to Somerset Hospital, where his blood-alcohol content measured 0.136 percent – above the state’s legal limit of 0.08 percent for drivers.

He then began banging his head on the wall, police said.

Ross is scheduled to answer the charges before District Judge Douglas Bell of Meyersdale on Jan. 14.