GLOUCESTER , MASS. (WHDH) - A state police K-9 is being credited with tracking down a “highly intoxicated” man accused of fleeing the scene of a single-car crash before falling asleep in a marsh in Gloucester early Saturday morning, authorities said.
A trooper on patrol shortly after midnight found a 2007 Volkswagen Jetta with heavy front-end damage off the roadway and into some bushes on Route 128 at the Grant Circle rotary after it apparently crashed, according to state police.
No driver was reportedly inside the car.
The trooper then saw a person in a black hoodie running in the area of the Jasmine Garden parking lot toward an adjacent marsh, state police said.
A second trooper from the state police’s K-9 unit responded and deployed his partner, Devaney, on a track from the car.
Devaney tracked across the rotary and into the marshland, leading the troopers through thick vegetation.
They then located the man in the black hoodie lying down in thick reeds, state police said.
He allegedly had an unopened can of beer in the back pocket of his jeans and appeared to have fallen asleep.
The troopers woke the man, who state police say was heavily intoxicated, and detained him.
He was eventually identified as Kenneth Collins, 28, of Georgetown, and taken to the state police Danvers barracks, state police said.
Collins allegedly refused a breath test and complained of pain, resulting in him being transported to Beverly Hospital.
One of the troopers waited with Collins at the hospital for several hours while he was evaluated and treated, state police said.
Upon his release from the hospital, Collins was taken back to the barracks and booked on charges of operating under the influence of alcohol, operating a motor vehicle after suspension, and leaving the scene of a crash causing personal injury.
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