POLICE: Fleeing female truck driver was intoxicated during chase

A female truck driver who crashed during a police chase after fleeing the scene of a first wreck was intoxicated at the time, court documents reveal.

The August 28th incident started in Lewis County, West Virginia when 52-year-old Nele Thuening struck a blue Dodge truck and fled, leading police on a chase along Interstate 79 into Harrison County.

According to 12WBOY News , the chase eventually led  to a 7-Eleven in Quiet Dell, where Thuening got “into an altercation with a customer,” prompting another alert to police. Officers arrived to find Thuening still there and spoke with her until she eventually got back into her rig and drove off. Witnesses “stated that the female driving the tractor-trailer appeared to be intoxicated” during the gas station altercation.

“I just heard the tires screech and she turned into the parking lot super fast. She had to be going over 30 miles an hour,” said Robert Keener to WV Metronews . “I hollered at her to slow down because she had the window down. She got out and got in my face.”

“She was trying to take off and the cops pulled in and made her step out of the vehicle. He [the cop] was talking to me, her, and the guy in the blue Dodge. As he was talking to the man in the blue Dodge that’s when she tried to get away,” Keener added.

She negotiated quite a tight turning radius for a tractor trailer of that size and was able to get back out there onto Route 20 and ultimately to 79,” said Harrison County Chief Deputy Robert Waybright.

Officers deployed stop sticks and disabled several of the semi truck’s tires, causing Thuening to lose control and overturn. Police then approached the semi truck, which was lying on its side, and found the driver “standing inside the cab and making obscene gestures toward deputies,” before kicking out a window, climbing out, and attempting to kick several deputies. A “struggle ensued” until officers eventually took her into custody.

Thuening was then transported to a nearby hospital “for medical clearance,” where she was noted to have “difficulty balancing and [they] could detect the odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from her.” Police also noted that there were  “numerous opened alcoholic beverages inside the cab of the tractor-trailer.”

Thuening has been charged with fleeing while DUI and is being held on $25,000 bond.

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