Street sweeper arrested for DWI

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A state worker showed up to the scene of a car crash in a street sweeper to help clean up the mess, but Bernalillo County Sheriff's Deputies say he caused a crash of his own.
 
"I think I drank about a six-pack. That was it," said state worker Herbert Morgan.

Morgan, 59, says he spent Friday 4-wheeling and drinking beer after he got off of work at 4 pm.

By 6 pm Morgan says he was on his way home and into bed. But by midnight,  Morgan claims he received a phone call to help sweep the wreckage from a crash on I-40. He says he shouldn't have been working at all.

"I wasn't on call. I wasn't on call that Saturday. It's usually the guy that's on call that takes care of all the situations," said Morgan.

But he still helped out. He says he drove a few miles to the Department of Transportation building on the Westside, picked up a big street sweeper, and then drove it west of Albuquerque about 15 miles to where the wreck happened on I-40 near mile marker 136.

Morgan says he didn't hit anything but the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office says he did. They say he backed up the sweeper into a deputy's patrol car.
 
Deputies thought he was drunk, so they gave Morgan a breath test in which they say he blew a 0.16, twice the presumed level of intoxication.

"I'm not blaming nobody. I'm blaming the cop for arresting me for no reason," said Morgan. Morgan was cuffed at the scene and taken to jail on aggravated DWI charges.

Morgan said he's never been in trouble for something like this before, but online court records show he has been convicted of drunk driving twice.      

Deputies say the patrol car had minor damage.

The Department of Transportation says they had just found out about Morgan's arrest, Sunday afternoon. They say they're investigating and Morgan could be fired.