Dash cam video captures alleged drunk driver nearly missing head-on crash

ORANGE (FOX 11) - "He's all the way over there. I'm getting pictures of all of it," the voice of Mark Girardeau is heard on his dash cam as he drove behind a pickup truck.

Girardeau watched as the truck's driver barely maintained control of the silver Toyota.

"I saw him swerve left and right and left and right and change speeds and at that point I figured something bad was going on," Girardeau said.

He recorded the whole incident on this small camera he has attached to his dashboard.

"My dash cam is always rolling. Every time I turn the car on it just starts recording in front of me," he said.

He caught the driver around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday on Santiago Canyon Road near the city of Orange. After following him for several miles, he called police. Girardeau said he feared the worst because Santiago Canyon is a curvy two-lane road that's known for deadly accidents.

"I was really worried he was going to hit someone that was going to die," he said. "I've seen it happen too much on this road."

Girardeau said the driver went roughly eight miles before his closest call yet. The pickup swerved and just missed colliding head-on with another car.

The driver then ran his truck off the road, getting stuck in a ditch and barbed wire fence. Girardeau pulled over to help and later turned his video footage over to California Highway Patrol (CHP).

CHP arrested the 42-year-old pickup truck driver on suspicion of DUI. He was not injured, authorities said.

Officials said they plan to use the video as evidence in the case.

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