PIP police: Teen driver of weaving sedan with eight minors inside was drunk

BY JERRY DEMARCO

**ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON WWW.CLIFFVIEWPILOT.COM (Bergen County’s leading site for breaking news)**

A Palisades Interstate Parkway officer who stopped a swerving sedan on the PIP said he found eight Rockland County juveniles inside, some of them drunk — including the driver.

Officer Gregory Kimbro Jr. was headed southbound on the Palisades Interstate Parkway entering New Jersey just before 2 a.m. Sunday when he spotted the 2002 silver Ford Taurus, Detective Lt. Michael Coppola said.

The officer stopped the vehicle near Interchange 4 in Alpine, he said.

One of the passengers opened a window, and Kimbro said he was “struck with an overwhelming odor of alcohol,” Coppola said.

With help from another officer, he began removing the occupants — four boys and four girls — including one he found curled up under the dashboard, half-asleep, he said.

One of the girls was 14. The rest of the youths were 15-17, most of them from New City.

Coppola said they’d forced off a party bus after they got rowdy following a high school dance on their way to a Long Island party boat.

The 17-year-old driver was taken into custody and later registered a .06% blood alcohol level, which is .05% above the legal limit for a juvenile.

The breakdown of his passengers:

Three boys: One 17, two 16, all from New City;

Four girls: Three 15, two from Nyack, one from New City; one 14 from New City.

All were released to family members pending Bergen County Family Court appearances.

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