When a South Williamsport patrolman approached a 2001 Subaru Forester that was stopped in the middle of the 300 block of West Southern Avenue with its hazard lights activated about 10 p.m. on Dec. 12, he saw a distraught woman sitting in the front passenger seat and three children ages 4 to 9 in the backseat. The driver’s seat was empty.

“My boyfriend was driving us while drunk, and I made him stop the car,” the woman told the officer. “He walked off,” the woman added.

The boyfriend has been identified in a police affidavit as Austin Travis Engel, 31, of 776 Route 15, South Williamsport.

The couple and the children had been at a downtown business, where Engel had been “consuming alcohol,” the woman told police. When they all left the business, Engel got behind the wheel, police were told.

The girlfriend started recording Engel with her cellphone because he was “acting like a total (expletive), driving crazy. I told him to pull over, but he wouldn’t,” it was stated in the court document.

In reviewing the video taken by the girlfriend, the officer could hear her pleading with Engel as he “was driving erratically, abruptly turning the steering wheel, accelerating and then hard braking,” the affidavit stated.

When Engel stopped at a stop sign on West Southern Avenue, the woman “took the keys out of the ignition, because she was worried about the children’s safety. Engel then exited the vehicle, walked off, abandoning the woman and the children,” the officer wrote in the affidavit.

The woman said that while her family was at the business, she told employees there to stop serving Engel because he was “very, very drunk,” the court document stated.

Within an hour after the officer came upon the woman, Engel was taken into custody at his Armstrong Township home, just outside the borough, by a state trooper. Engel was “highly intoxicated,” and struggled with the trooper, it was alleged. Engel submitted a blood sample, but the results were not available Monday.

He was arraigned on charges When a South Williamsport patrolman approached a 2001 Subaru Forester that was stopped in the middle of the 300 block of West Southern Avenue with its hazard lights activated about 10 p.m. on Dec. 12, he saw a distraught woman sitting in the front passenger seat and three children ages 4 to 9 in the backseat. The driver’s seat was empty.

“My boyfriend was driving us while drunk, and I made him stop the car,” the woman told the officer. “He walked off,” the woman added.

The boyfriend has been identified in a police affidavit as Austin Travis Engel, 31, of 776 Route 15, South Williamsport.

The couple and the children had been at a downtown business, where Engel had been “consuming alcohol,” the woman told police. When they all left the business, Engel got behind the wheel, police were told.

The girlfriend started recording Engel with her cellphone because he was “acting like a total (expletive), driving crazy. I told him to pull over, but he wouldn’t,” it was stated in the court document.

In reviewing the video taken by the girlfriend, the officer could hear her pleading with Engel as he “was driving erratically, abruptly turning the steering wheel, accelerating and then hard braking,” the affidavit stated.

When Engel stopped at a stop sign on West Southern Avenue, the woman “took the keys out of the ignition, because she was worried about the children’s safety. Engel then exited the vehicle, walked off, abandoning the woman and the children,” the officer wrote in the affidavit.

The woman said that while her family was at the business, she told employees there to stop serving Engel because he was “very, very drunk,” the court document stated.

Within an hour after the officer came upon the woman, Engel was taken into custody at his Armstrong Township home, just outside the borough, by a state trooper. Engel was “highly intoxicated,” and struggled with the trooper, it was alleged. Engel submitted a blood sample, but the results were not available Monday.

He was arraigned on charges of felony endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person, DUI, resisting arrest and two summary offenses, including driving with a suspended license.

Jailed in the Lycoming County Prison in lieu of $50,000 bail, Engel was recently held for court on all charges following a preliminary hearing before District Judge Gary Whiteman. recklessly endangering another person, DUI, resisting arrest and two summary offenses, including driving with a suspended license.

Jailed in the Lycoming County Prison in lieu of $50,000 bail, Engel was recently held for court on all charges following a preliminary hearing before District Judge Gary Whiteman.