Driver of Christmas float charged with DUI

Associated Press
Dec. 5, 2006 09:45 AM


COLUMBIA, S.C. - A man accused of speeding down Main Street in Anderson has been charged with drunken driving. What was unusual was that he was driving a float in a Christmas parade at the time.

When officers caught up to 42-year-old David Allen Rodgers, he had an open container of alcohol in the truck he used to haul the children and adults on a float for the Steppin' Out Dance Studio, Anderson Police spokeswoman Linda Dudley said.

Witnesses said Rodgers was driving in line in Sunday's parade when he pulled out to pass a tractor in the float. Rodgers sped down Main Street and ran a red light, while a witness on the float called 911 on a cell phone, police said.

Officers started chasing Rodgers, who didn't stop for three miles. Once he pulled over, he tried to attack an officer, Dudley said.

Rodgers, whose child was on the float, faces more than three dozen charges, including DUI, 18 counts of kidnapping and assaulting an officer, authorities said.

A woman who answered the phone at Rodgers' home would not talk to a reporter and a message left at the dance studio was not returned Monday.

my God!

Oh man .... but I cant help but laugh .. "pulled out to pass a tractor in the float" .. Poor kiddies, must have been scared out of their wits, their float speeding down the street .. then seeing the incident involving their driver.

If one of my kids had been on that float this guy would be dead or at least near death now.

What an idiot.

Is there some kind of screening used for these drivers or do they just pull someone off the street and hope for the best?

That HAS to be it. Maybe it's just the relatives of the people who work for the company that the float is advertising that is doing the driving?

Did that make sense?

That made sense and is probably exactly how they do it..

luckily nobody was hurt

^^ Yeah, it had to be pure luck.

I like the way he was passing on the right. I wonder if he left a trail of children and float parts behind him. Eat my float pal.

poor kids stupid man
would have been funny to see though