A horse rider is facing DUI charges after he lost control of his horse and trampled a boy in a California parade last week, CBS News reported.
Armando Martinez Ruiz was reportedly drunk while riding his horse at the Colusa County Fair Parade last Friday night when the incident occurred.
According to police, the horse threw Ruiz off its back and bolted through a crowd gathered by 8th St. and Webster St., injuring the unnamed eight-year-old boy as it ran away.
Police were able to retrieve the horse and promptly arrested Ruiz and booked him into jail for felony DUI.
"In California the same laws apply when riding horses as driving cars," the Colusa Police Department said.
Fortunately, there were no fatalities, unlike an incident that took place a few years ago in Iowa when two runaway horses pulling a wagon trampled spectators at a small-town Fourth of July parade, killing a 60-year-old woman and injuring at least 23 other people, two of whom were children.
While no one was charged with DUI in that incident, based on the outcome of the most recent event, police certainly take drunk driving, and horseback riding, very seriously.
Last year Polk County police arrested a 53-year-old woman and charged her with DUI after they found her riding her horse along a Florida highway, NBC News noted.
Police said the woman "was obviously not in any condition to be on the road," adding that she "not only put herself and the horse in danger, but also anyone who was driving on the road, which is typically very busy."
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