Trucker blocks traffic to protect motorists from erratic driver

State Police credited an unidentified truck driver with  protecting motorists by slowing down and blocking traffic in both eastbound  lanes of the New York Thruway last Friday to keep drivers out of harm’s way  from an erratic driver suspected of being drunk ahead of them.

The Oneida County 911 center received several reports of an erratic pick-up  truck traveling east on the Thruway in the town of Westmoreland, NY, according  to a report in the Oneida  Daily Dispatch. Callers reported that the vehicle was swerving all over the  road. 

The driver was eventually pulled over by state police at the  Westmoreland toll plaza. The driver, 40-year-old Anthony M. Imbesi, exited his  vehicle while it was still in drive and police had to jump in to stop the car.

Police said Imbesi was highly intoxicated and was combative and verbally  abusive when arrested. His blood alcohol content was three times the legal  limit, according to police.

Imbesi was charged with felony aggravated driving while intoxicated, driving  while intoxicated, failure to obey a police officer, having an open container  of alcohol in a motor vehicle and several vehicle and traffic law violations.

This isn’t Imbesi’s first drunken driving charge, the paper  reported. In January 2011 he was also arrested for aggravated driving while intoxicated  after being stopped for driving erratically on the Thruway. His blood alcohol  then was found to be .21%.