CLEARWATER — Police arrested a man on a DUI charge Friday evening after witnesses said he drove the wrong way down McMullen Booth Road.
A police aide noticed Frank Odice, 78, of Safety Harbor, driving north in the southbound lanes of McMullen Booth Road about 6:30 p.m. Friday, the Clearwater Police Department said in a news release. The aide was able to stanch the flow of southbound traffic long enough to get officers to the scene, police said.
When they stopped Odice, officers said the man showed "several signs of impairment." Odice also said he had been drinking before he got in the car, police said.
Odice's arrest comes on the heels of multiple high-profile wrong way driving deaths in the Tampa Bay area. In October, 68-year-old Bamnet Narongchai was killed in a crash with a wrong way driver on the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway in Tampa. And in the span of two weeks in late October and early November, wrong way drivers injured multiple people in two serious, unrelated crashes.
Read more: Another wrong-way suspected DUI driver on Howard Frankland Bridge leaves woman critically injured
Read more: TPD: Man driving wrong way on Selmon Expressway with lights off kills 68-year-old
Police charged Odice with driving under the influence, and he has been booked into the Pinellas County jail.
Contact Kirby Wilson at kwilson@tampabay.com. Follow @kirbywtweets.