Albuquerque police arrested a woman who they say was drunk, going the wrong way on a one-way street while driving a scooter.
It’s APD’s first DWI arrest on one of the new e-scooters the city allowed onto the streets just six days ago. Last Thursday, 250 e-scooters hit Albuquerque streets, and the city announced its partnership with Zagster in a one-year pilot program.
“We definitely want everybody to have fun, but you have to be safe and you have to be responsible,” Officer Simon Drobik said.
However, police say it didn’t take long for one person to use one of the electric scooters irresponsibly. “Unfortunately, day six here of scooters in Albuquerque and we’ve encountered a DWI,” Officer Drobik said.
Wednesday night, an Albuquerque police officer said a woman was driving one of the new e-scooters the wrong way down Second Street, north of Lomas. According to the criminal complaint, when the woman approached the intersection, she never stopped.
“Going the wrong way down a one-way street, there’s no expectation from other drivers that somebody would be going the opposite direction,” Officer Drobik said.
Police said that woman was Lily Romero.
The APD officer said he signaled twice to try and get Romero to pull over, and when that didn’t work he had no choice but to cut the scooter off. According to the complaint, Romero told the officer she was coming from Marble Brewery and was trying to get to another bar.
The officer said Romero smelled of booze and performed poorly on sobriety tests. The 26-year-old was arrested and charged with one count of aggravated DWI because police say she blew a .20.
“We want these things to be a success, but you cannot drive these things intoxicated,” Officer Drobik said.
The scooters can only be used from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. According to court documents, Romero was arrested around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday night.
Police are looking into when she started her fare. Albuquerque is expected to have another 500 e-scooters here by July.
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