A Connecticut woman may have learned the hard way not to mix hand sanitizer and highways.
Jennifer Amanda Wilcox, 36, was charged with driving under the influence and failure to drive right after allegedly almost crashing her car into police officers who had pulled over another driver, according to Middletown-Ct. Patch.
Police say that when they pulled her over, one of the officers detected alcohol on her breath. However, upon questioning, she denied having had anything to drink.
However, after Wilcox allegedly failed a sobriety test by blowing a reported .17 on the breathalyzer — more than twice the legal limit — officers say she told them she had drunk half a bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer that morning, the Metro reported.
Jennifer Amanda Wilcox
Wilcox told WTNH-TV that she regretted guzzling down the hand sanitizer, and her only reason for doing so was that she “saw it there.”
She told the station she drank about half of a big bottle, which, according to ER doctors, was equivalent to 32 shots of vodka.
She was released on a $500 non-surety bond and is due in court on Oct. 17, NBCNews reported.
This is only the latest misuse of hand sanitizer that’s dirtied up the product’s reputation. Earlier this year, six teenagers were treated in two San Fernando Valley emergency rooms with alcohol poisoning after drinking hand sanitizer, and at least two homeless people in Albuquerque, N.M., died after drinking a mix of distilled hand sanitizer and mouthwash.
