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After driving into the Super 8 Motel sign at roughly 30 mph, James Gallagher, 38, of Lovell was arrested on April 5 on charges of unlawful use of toxic substances and driving under the …
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After driving into the Super 8 Motel sign at roughly 30 mph, James Gallagher, 38, of Lovell was arrested on April 5 on charges of unlawful use of toxic substances and driving under the influence.
Powell Police Department Sgts. Dustin DelBiaggio and Sean Alquist responded to the Super 8 Motel on East Coulter Avenue at 4:30 p.m. following reports of a vehicle collision. According to the affidavit, a trail of fluid was leading to Gallagher’s GMC Sierra from the Super 8 Motel sign.
A witness said the vehicle crossed both westbound lanes of traffic on East Coulter Avenue before running into the Super 8 Motel sign. Gallagher then allegedly parked the vehicle — which was damaged on the front driver’s side — and exited it with a brown paper bag, which he took into Maverik.
He returned to the vehicle without the bag. A can of Blow Off Duster aerosol was found in the trash with a brown paper bag. Aerosols dispelled into a contained space can sometimes be inhaled as an intoxicant.
Gallagher admitted to discarding “a can of air.”
Gallagher was involved in a collision the previous day on U.S. Highway 14A west of Ralston, where he received citations for careless driving and failure to maintain lane of travel, but he claimed to not have used inhalants at that time.
While reaching for his “cellular device” that had fallen on the floor of the vehicle, Gallagher “crossed the center line and drove across the oncoming lanes and struck (a) white GMC Acadia,” the Park County Sheriff’s Office said.
Both Gallagher and the other vehicle had a child passenger at the time of the collision.
Gallagher stated that he did not use inhalants while driving on April 5 but did after picking personal items up from his vehicle at a collision shop.
“No, I was parked and then I drove,” he said.
Officer Matt Koritnik, a certified drug recognition expert, was contacted. According to the affidavit, Koritnik said, “between when the accident occurred and the time the intoxicant was discovered, the effects of the intoxicant had dissipated to a point that an exam or blood tests would not show inhalants.”
Gallagher was cited for careless driving on U.S. Highway 14A in February 2022.
He is currently out on a $1,000 bond and is not to operate any vehicle at this time.
