Nearly midnight, two 13-year-olds experience DUI from the backseat

Mother of one of them tests at than double the legal blood alcohol limit

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A mother caught swerving through lanes of traffic with two 13-year-olds in the car was arrested for driving under the influence after being pulled over late last Saturday night.

Elizabeth J. Buker, 48, of Tumwater, blew three times into the Draeger, hitting a .198 on her final attempt before she was arrested early Sunday morning, May 30. The legal blood alcohol limit in Washington is .08.

A Tumwater police officer had been dispatched after an eyewitness noticed Buker’s gray Subaru Impreza swerving in and out of its lane on Old Hwy 99 SE going 10 mph and yielding to no traffic at a roundabout.

Buker, who told TPD that she had three or four glasses of wine, stumbled when getting out of her vehicle and a few times during her field sobriety test. When a second officer arrived on the scene, Buker started to get “very upset” and “fell to her knees” and stated “just killed me now.”

Two 13-year-olds were in the vehicle at the time of Buker’s arrest; Buker’s daughter and the daughter’s friend, who were both released to the daughter’s friend’s mother.

Buker was arrested and placed in the backseat of the Tumwater police patrol car. As it began moving, police say she began screaming at the top of her lungs and demanded that the TPD officer “shoot her,” according to the police report.

When booked into Nisqually Jail, Buker began making statements to the officer that “there are way worse people than me out driving” and that the officer “only found her because someone called.”

Buker was booked for driving under the influence and two counts of reckless engagement. A referral to child protective services was made for Buker’s daughter.

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