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Tampa woman who drove into police car accused of DUI

 
Published April 26, 2015

TAMPA — A DUI traffic stop on Saturday night quickly turned into two DUI traffic stops: Authorities said a 32-year-old woman crashed her car into the back of the Tampa police vehicle that had pulled over another driver on Kennedy Boulevard.

The second driver was Nicole Schnell, who was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence with property damage.

Schnell was driving a 2012 Mustang eastbound on Kennedy Boulevard about 11:40 p.m., police said. Ahead of her, two Tampa police officers had pulled over a suspected drunken driver at Kennedy and Orleans Avenue.

Both police vehicles were parked facing eastbound on Kennedy with their lights on, authorities said.

But Schnell failed to see the vehicles, according to police, and drove into one of them. That caused one police car to strike the other one, authorities said.

Both officers were out of their cars when the vehicles were struck, police said. Neither they nor Schnell were injured in the crash.

Schnell's blood-alcohol level was as high as 0.151, according to Hillsborough County jail records. State law presumes a driver is legally impaired at 0.08 or greater.

Schnell, of 208 Danube Ave., was released from jail Sunday after posting $500 bail. The other driver was not identified.