Cary police: DUI driver crashes over retaining wall

A Cary man has been charged with DUI after multiple people reported seeing his pickup truck drive over a curb, past a sidewalk, through a fence and off a retaining wall, authorities said.

Keith Whippie, 44, of Cary, is facing charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, driving with a blood alcohol content of more than .08 and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, Deputy Chief of Support Services Scott Naydenoff said in a news release.

Cary police say they started getting calls about a blue pickup truck at 10:26 p.m. Friday, and that Whippie was driving it.

The first call came from someone at the Jewel grocery store at 696 W. Northwest Hwy., saying a customer, a man who appeared intoxicated, was leaving the parking lot of the Cary Square shopping center in a blue pickup truck, police said.

A few minutes later, police received more calls saying a blue pickup truck drove off a retaining wall near Feinberg Drive, which is on the southeast side of the shopping center.

The first officers to arrive determined the truck drove east across Feinberg Drive from the shopping center parking lot, over a curb and a sidewalk, through a fence and off a retaining wall, which police estimated to be 12 feet tall. The truck landed on the driver's side in the parking lot of Galati's Hideaway at 800 Feinberg Court, police said.

Whippie, the only person in the vehicle, suffered minor injuries. He was taken to Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, where police said he was treated and released.