WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A Hollywood man was arrested last month after he was found asleep behind the wheel of his car, which was stopped in the middle of Interstate 95 with an unbuckled 3-year-old boy in the front passenger seat, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Benjamin Durant, 31, faces several charges from the Dec. 30 incident, including driving under the influence, child abuse without great bodily harm and driving with a suspended license.
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According to the FHP report, a trooper found Durant asleep in the driver's seat of a Ford Fusion in the center lane of northbound I-95 near Forest Hill Boulevard in West Palm Beach.
The trooper noticed that the keys were still in the ignition and Durant's foot was on the brake, the report said. He also saw a 3-year-old boy sitting in the front passenger seat. There was no child seat in the car.
"I identified myself to the driver and observed that he had the odor of an unknown alcoholic beverage emitting from his breath," the trooper wrote in the report. "I also observed that he had bloodshot, glassy eyes."
The trooper said Durant had trouble standing and was using the car to balance himself.
Durant agreed to a field-sobriety test, but he refused to submit to a breath sample, the report said.
The boy was turned over to his mother's custody, the report said.