Weekend nets five impaired driver arrests

Callaway County escaped the New Year's weekend with no fatal accidents and five impaired driver arrests.

Maj. Roger Rice of the Fulton Police Department reported Fulton police arrested four people during the holiday weekend for driving while intoxicated.

"We had only two accidents and both had no injuries," Rice said.

Arrested during the weekend by Fulton Police on DWI charges were:

Tanner Eldon Westhues, 21, Columbia; Ryan C. Bealo, 25, Conklin, N.Y.; Daniel Jack Hitt, 21, New Bloomfield; and Lamar R. Scott, 23, Fulton.

In Callaway County there was one arrest for driving while intoxicated and two arrests for driving while revoked.

The Callaway County DWI arrest involved Stanley Ronimous, 42, Holts Summit, who led law enforcement agencies on a 40-minute chase starting at 2:02 a.m. Saturday in the Holts Summit and Tebbetts area. Ronimous also was arrested on a charge of resisting arrest.

One of the driving-while-revoked arrests in Callaway County was William J. Saffeel, 36, Holts Summit, who led law enforcement on a 31-minute chase starting at 1:09 a.m. in the New Bloomfield and Holts Summit areas. He also faces a charge of resisting arrest.

The other driving-while-revoked arrest involved Michael W. Morgan, 39, Jefferson City. Morgan was arrested in Callaway County by the Missouri State Highway Patrol at 5:30 p.m. Morgan also faces a felony charge of possession of methamphetamine and two misdemeanor marijuana charges.

Sgt. Clay Chism of the Callaway County Sheriff's Department reported no other DWI arrests by his department during the weekend.

"Our deputies were extremely busy answering numerous disturbance calls and other investigations," Chism said.

He noted that two high speed chases involving his department that resulted in one DWI arrest and two resisting arrest charges occurred during peak times for DWI enforcement.

The patrol reported only one person died in the 157 accidents it investigated during the New Year's holiday counting period from 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31, to 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 2.

Statewide the patrol reported 157 accidents with 70 injuries and one fatality. It recorded 90 arrests for driving while intoxicated.

The lone fatality occurred when Joseph W. Russell, 31, died in a head-on collision when the vehicle he was driving struck an transport truck on Interstate 44 just west of Springfield in Greene County. Both vehicles traveled into the median and caught on fire.