Drunk cheese hauler rolls truck in Milton, Mass

Thursday morning, 43-year-old truck driver Eri Pleitez, of Lynn, Ma, was apparently driving drunk when he rolled his tractor trailer, bringing down a utility pole, power lines, a transformer and a guardrail.


Pleitez was cut off by a black pickup truck, causing the truck to roll over onto its side. He was hauling 38,000 lbs of dairy products. Mostly cheese.

milton mass trucker drunk dumps load of cheeseThe crash happened on the Southeast Expressway (I-93) at Exit 10 on the southbound side of the highway near Squantum Street around 1:30 a.m.

The accident caused major delays as part of I-93 was shut down around Milton.

Pleitez was arrested and charged with OUI, negligent operation of a vehicle and a marked lanes violation after he failed a field sobriety test and “had trouble counting”.

According to prosecuters, Pleitez said he drank six beers.

“He only had a couple of beers because it was a friend’s birthday,” a friend of Pleitez told WBZ NewsRadio outside of court. “He wasn’t really that drunk. The guy’s got kids, he owns his own truck.”

I don’t think the trucker’s friend is really helping matters here.

Pleitez was not injured in the crash. The condition of the cheese is unknown.

NECN
WBZ