Rochester PD: Suspected Impaired Driver Strikes Bicyclist

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News)- Rochester Police suspect a driver who struck a bicyclist over the weekend of being impaired. 

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Police Captain Casey Moilanen said an officer on patrol heard the collision shortly after 11:10 p.m. Friday. The vehicle-bicycle collision occurred at the intersection of Civic Center Dr. Northwest and West Silver Lake Dr. Northeast. 

The preliminary crash investigation indicates a Pontiac hatchback traveling south on West Silver Lake Dr. struck the bike as it was crossing the intersection at an angle towards Civic Center Dr. Northwest. The cyclist, described as a 41-year-old Rochester man, appeared to have avoided serious injury but was taken by Ambulance to St. Mary’s Hospital, Moilanen said. 

Officers identified the vehicle driver as 28-year-old Uriah Flowers of Rochester. Moilanen said officers arrested Flowers after reportedly finding a gram of suspected methamphetamine and a meth pipe in his vehicle. 

Investigators drafted a search warrant to obtain a blood sample from Flowers that has been sent to the Minnesota BCA for testing. Police are referring charges of felony criminal vehicular operation, felony drug possession, second-degree DWI, driving after revocation and driving without insurance against Flowers to the Olmsted County Attorney. 

Moilanen said officers at the crash scene suspected alcohol of also being in Flowers’s system. Flowers has also had four implied consent driver’s license revocations in the past year, Moilanen said.