Injured drunk driver found at a restaurant

When police and EMS workers arrived at a Spout Springs Road location, they found a Hyundai Sonata that had crashed into a telephone pole, but its driver was missing. There was blood on the vehicle’s windshield, where police said the driver’s head hit it. Officers also found a beer can and one sandal in the car.

A Braselton officer and someone from Hall County Fire and EMS went to a nearby Waffle House, where they found the driver — who was missing a sandal that matched the one found in the car, according to an incident report.

The driver had injuries to his forehead and chin, and he didn’t know that he was bleeding, according to police.

The driver — Sean Hayes Clifford, 22, of Buford — gave police several accounts of what happened before the accident.

Clifford said he drank five or six beers at a friend’s house. He refused to be taken by ambulance to a hospital. An officer gave him a breathalyzer test, but didn’t perform any field sobriety tests because of the head injury, according to an incident report.

Clifford was charged with failure to maintain lane, driving too fast for conditions, failure to wear a seatbelt and DUI. He was taken to the Gwinnett County Detention Center.

Other Incidents
Other incidents reported to the Braselton Police Department last week included:
•leaked chemical on Ga. Hwy. 53, where an officer noticed that a tractor-trailer truck that was parked at the entrance of YearOne was leaking a white fluid on the ground. The driver told the officer that the fluid was used for soap. The West Jackson Fire Department cleaned the roadway. The Braselton officer also called the Motor Carrier Compliance Division, which inspected the truck. The state agency issued a citation against the driver for an unsecured load.

•simple assault at a Chardonnay Trace address, where a dispute was reported between a husband and a wife. A man and his daughter were standing in a driveway when an officer arrived. The man said his son stole his trailer and sold it to a junk yard for scrap metal. The man said when he confronted his son about the trailer, the son got upset and punched a hold in the garage door. The son was not at the residence at the time and no one wanted to press charges. A third man then told an officer that the son came up to him in his yard, grabbed him by his shirt and threw him around. The third man didn’t know why the son assaulted him.

•suspicious vehicle on I-85, where an officer said a driver’s responses to several questions changed when he was asked about possible marijuana in a vehicle during a traffic stop. The driver said there was $2,000-3,000 in cash in the vehicle. The driver allowed police to search his vehicle, where they found the cash in a cooler in the trunk. Police said there were several air fresheners hanging from the trunk over the cooler that contained the money. The money was wrapped in rubber bands. One of the officers said the vehicle had a strong odor of marijuana coming from it. Officers said the driver told them that he and a passenger were returning from a construction work site, but police said they were dressed as though they were on vacation and their clothing in the vehicle was cleaned and pressed. The men were released with the money and a written warning.

•simple battery at a Hope Haven Way address, where a husband and a wife had an argument that led to the husband holding the wife’s head under water in a bathtub. The husband also allegedly hit and pushed the woman. The children in the house told the husband to stop and the husband later left the residence. When the wife learned that her husband was facing arrest, she refused to complete a witness statement, according to police. An officer didn’t interview the children because they were too upset. The officer was unable to get the husband’s side of the story because he wasn’t there at the time.

•damage to property on I-85, where an employee for a car dealership in Columbus, Ga., said a truck lost a piece of its load and it damaged one of three vehicles that were being transported from Tennessee to Columbus. The woman said she tried to get the driver of the truck to pull over, but he refused. A group of three people from the dealership traveling together in separate vehicles pulled over and called 911 to report the incident.

•damage to property at the Braselton Town Hall, where a woman said a tree branch fell on her vehicle. An officer said there was a large dent on the right side and hood caused by the branch.