Centre County man charged with DUI after crashing into Port Matilda Borough Building
A Worth Township man who slammed his pickup truck into the Port Matilda Borough Building was charged Thursday with driving under the influence.
Will Bracken, 32, crashed his 2007 Dodge Ram 3500 pickup into the building, 400 S. High St., shortly after a Borough Council meeting adjourned in March.
His blood alcohol content was 0.124%, state police at Rockview wrote in an affidavit of probable cause. The legal threshold for DUI is 0.08%.
Bracken told investigators he fell asleep before crashing into the building, police wrote. He was not injured in the crash. A handful of borough staff that were inside the building were also uninjured.
The crash caused substantial damage to the building and forced Borough Council to conduct meetings in the Port Matilda Fire Hall.
Mark Lively, Port Matilda Borough Council president, said the borough met with the insurance company’s structural engineer earlier this month, but the official report of the cost of damages from the claim adjuster has yet to be completed.
“We are still awaiting the official report. We need the report so that engineering and architectural drawings of the replacement building section can be produced. Once we have the drawings, the borough will need to bid out the construction because the (expected) cost will be over the $21,900 bid threshold,” Lively wrote in an email.
Bracken deferred comment to defense lawyer Tom Dickey, who did not immediately respond.
Bracken was charged with two misdemeanor counts of DUI and three summary traffic violations. His preliminary arraignment has not yet been scheduled.
