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would you want onstar in your car?
from the morning sun
OnStar leads police to drunken drivers
By SUSAN FIELD
Clare Managing Editor
They found the "on“ button, but they couldn't turn it off, and it landed them in jail.
Brent Patrick Farmer, 25, of St. Charles, wound up in the Isabella County Jail after following his arrest for third-offense drunken driving early Thursday morning after an OnStar advisor led police to the Cadillac Escalade he was driving on U.S. 127.
His passenger, 35-year-old Denis Gavin Grant, of St. Charles, the owner of the Escalade, was arrested for allowing his friend to drive drunk and for having open alcohol in the sports utility vehicle, state police Sgt. Del Putnam said.
Farmer and Grant were in the Isabella County Jail late Thursday afternoon but had not been arraigned on the charges because they were still drunk as of 2:30 p.m., according to jail officials.
Farmer was being held on a $70,000 bond and Grant on a $6,000 bond, according to court records.
An OnStar advisor called Isabella County Central Dispatch at 4:15 a.m. Thursday in an effort to assist the men, who repeatedly hit the Escalade's OnStar button panel but would not talk to the advisor, Putnam said.
Fearing for Farmer's and Grant's safety, the OnStar advisor contacted emergency dispatchers, telling them the Escalade was traveling north on the highway near the Gratiot-Isabella County line, Putnam said. Because OnStar-equipped vehicles have global positioning systems, the advisor was able to pinpoint where the Escalade was, giving dispatchers the information they needed to direct state Trooper Scott Taylor to the vehicle, Putnam said. Taylor caught up with the red sports utility vehicle near the Summerton Road overpass, stopped the vehicle and arrested Farmer for drunken driving, driving with a revoked or denied license, having open alcohol and for resisting and obstructing police, Putnam said. Grant told Taylor that he was too drunk to drive, instead letting Farmer get behind the wheel, Putnam said. Farmer's blood-alcohol content exceeded .30 – the legal level for drunken driving in Michigan is .08, Putnam said. The "dazed and confused“ Farmer told Taylor that he and Grant were "just messing around“ with the OnStar button, Putnam said. "Sometimes, you get help that you didn't expect,“ Putnam said. Anne Mittelstaedt, a spokeswoman for OnStar in Detroit, said that the advisor followed protocol when she alerted Isabella County Central Dispatch after the emergency button on the Escalade's rear-view mirror had been hit repeatedly. When the advisor could not get either Grant or Farmer to talk, she notified dispatchers, Mittelstaedt said. While at times people accidentally push OnStar buttons, most people who hit the emergency button do so because they are in need of emergency medical or other help, Mittelstaedt said.
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Originally Posted by Pull~My~Hair
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