FHP: Century Man Flips Car, Flees Ambulance, Drives Home, Arrested For DUI

June 16, 2025

A Century man fled a DUI crash and drove home, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Willie Eugene Cottrell, 67, was charged with DUI and leaving the scene of a crash with property damage.

Cottrell veered off the road, overturned his Nissan Versa, and hit a wire fence on Highway 4A near Bass Road, according to troopers. The vehicle made at least one rotation before coming to final rest back on its tires. Cottrell then called 911, and Escambia County Fire Rescue and Escambia County EMS responded.

He became verbally abusive to EMS personnel in the back of the ambulance and fled through the rear doors, according to an arrest report, before getting back in his Nissan and driving home about 1.5 miles to his residence on Backwoods Road.

A trooper responded to his residence, noting he smelled strongly of alcohol and was slurring his words. He refused a field sobriety test, but the trooper said his impairment from alcohol “was extreme and obvious” and placed him under arrest. Cottrell later provided two breath samples, both showing a breath alcohol content of 0.164, over twice the legal limit of 0.08, according to the arrest report.

Comments

6 Responses to “FHP: Century Man Flips Car, Flees Ambulance, Drives Home, Arrested For DUI”

  1. Taylon on June 16th, 2025 1:12 pm

    Am I the only one impressed that the Nissan Versa was able to do a barrel roll and keep on running? If that isn’t quality, I don’t know what is.

  2. George on June 16th, 2025 12:51 pm

    Alcohol, if used properly prevents infection and save lives.

  3. bob on June 16th, 2025 11:06 am

    Just wondering…

    Should he have been charged with 2 counts of DUI?

  4. Susie on June 16th, 2025 10:10 am

    More proof drinking alcohol does more than ruin your looks, it causes internal damage including brain degeneration. It also kills people while you’re ignorant enough to drive. God bless our First Responders who save lives every day.

  5. Willis on June 16th, 2025 7:33 am

    That’s 2 tough ones right there.
    Mr. Cottrell and his Nissan Versa.

  6. Steve on June 16th, 2025 6:27 am

    Not Guilty !





Have a comment on this story?

We welcome your comments on this story, but there are some rules to follow::

(1) Be Nice. No comments that slander another, no racism, no sexism, no personal attacks.

(2) No Harrassing Comments. If someone says something bad about you, don't respond. That's childish.

(3) No Libel. That's saying something is not true about someone. Don't do it.

(4) Keep it clean. Nothing vulgar, obscene or sexually related. No profanity or obvious substitutions. Period.

(5) NorthEscambia.com reserves the right to remove any comments that violate our rules or we think to be inappropriate. We are not responsible for what is posted. Comments may not appear right away until they are approved by a moderator.

(6) Limit your comments to the subject in this story only, and limit comments to 300 words or less. Do not post copyrighted material. Comments will not be added to stories that are over 30 days old.

(7) No posts may advertise a commercial business, political candidate or political group, or link to another commercial web site or political site of any kind.