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Office Trevor Costabile was conducting a motor vehicle stop on Cedar Place shortly before noon on Sunday, Jan. 14, when he spotted the GMC van “being operated in an erratic manner,” Detective Capt. Dan Daly said.
The van burned rubber as the driver cut through the West Belt Plaza lot and raced south on Route 23, the captain said.
Costabile activated his emergency lights and siren as the driver turned onto Newark-Pompton Turnpike with the van’s wheels spinning, Daly said.
Instead of stopping, the driver turned onto Ryerson Avenue, he said.
Wayne Township was under a state of emergency due to the flooding.
The driver turned down various side streets and eventually tried to plow through the floodwaters on Dorsa Avenue, alarming a nearby pedestrian, the captain said.
Costabile radioed ahead and members of the Wayne Police Marine Unit who were in the area followed the van, which became disabled after it left the roadway and headed into the woods, Daly said.
Residents gave police the driver’s name -- Kreg Daviou, 34, of Wayne – and told them he'd been driving erratically through the flood zone earlier.
Officers then called him on his cellphone.
Daviou answered and told them he was in Kinnelon, the captain said.
What he didn’t know, Daly said, was that Lt. Skylar Cauceglia could see him talking on the phone while wading through the flooded woods.
Officers converged on Daviou and took him into custody without further incident, he said.
Davious failed field sobriety tests and was charged with DWI after he refused to provide breath samples at headquarters, Daly said.
Police also charged him with eluding and issued summonses for DWI and reckless driving, then sent him to the Passaic County Jail.
Daviou was later transferred to the Bergen County Jail and ordered released by a judge on Jan. 16 under New Jersey’s 2017 bail reform law.
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