UPDATE - Police say man who crashed SUV into two police cars was drunk

Trooper alleges man's blood-alcohol content was twice legal limit

TELL CITY – A 31-year-old Perry County man was allegedly driving drunk and without a valid driver's license when his sport-utility vehicle collided with two parked Tell City police cars in the 300 block of 11th Street early Friday. The two officers, who were investigating a separate complaint at the time, escaped injury.

According to Indiana State Police Trooper Mark Lehmkuhler, the Ford Explorer driven by William O. Thomas, of 562 Loop Drive, Tell City, hit the two cars just before 1 a.m. Patrolmen Bryce Hammack and Phillip Flamion had parked and exited their cars on the side of the street after responding to a possible domestic dispute.

The impact tore the front left tire from the Explorer and pancaked the passenger sides of the two Chevrolet Impala police cars.

Police were trying to obtain damage estimates for the two cars Friday. The officers will be assigned other cars.

Thomas, who was not injured, allegedly fled on foot after the impact but was captured after a short foot pursuit.

He faces charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated with a previous conviction, a Class D felony, and misdemeanor charges of resisting law enforcement, driving while suspended and leaving the scene of an accident.

Court records filed Friday allege Thomas had an alcohol concentration in his system of .18 percent, more than twice the legal limit in Indiana.

Two passengers in the Explorer, Thomas' 29-year-old wife, Terri, and 34-year-old Christopher Little of Tell City, were charged with public intoxication. They were released from the Perry County Jail after each posted $300 bail.

William Thomas remained in jail Friday afternoon on $3,300 bail.

Cannelton officers and county sheriff's deputies assisted at the scene.