‘I have to stop drinking,’ hit and run driver tells Port Authority police officer

BEYOND BERGEN: “I have to stop drinking,” a hit-and-run driver who blew a .245 on a blood alcohol content breath test — three times over the legal limit — told a Port Authority police officer who’d just chased him across the Bayonne Bridge into Staten Island, authorities said.

Photo Credit: *Courtesy PORT AUTHORITY PD*

Jerry DeMarco

06/30/2014 12:49 a.m.

Officer Robert Jersey spotted the 2002 Chevrolet van driven by 40-year-old Jose Morales around 8:45 p.m. yesterday after Bayonne police issued an alert following the crash off 5th Street, the authority’s Joseph Pentangelo said.

Morales was unsteady on his feet, had watery eyes and slurred his words after Jersey pulled him over on Route 440 in Staten Island, Pentangelo said.

“I have to stop drinking,” Jersey said Morales told him before being taken into custody.

Morales was charged by Port Authority police with DWI and by Bayonne police with leaving the scene of an accident. The van was impounded.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy PORT AUTHORITY PD

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