In a strangely sardonic incident, a drunk driver rear-ended a pedal pub where people drink while traveling city streets.
The patron-powered pub was on the Hennepin Avenue Bridge crossing the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday night when Mershon L. Corbett, 35, rear-ended the large multi-passenger cycle/bar, police said.
Police report that 12 of the 13 people on board were injured in the accident.
Eight were treated and released, and the other four remained in the Hennepin County Medical Center with injuries, but they will survive, hospital spokeswoman Christine Hill told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
This is the second incident involving the roaming pedal pubs in Minneapolis in the last month. In May, a group of biking hooligans harassed patrons of a pedal pub with water guns and balloons.
The patrons turned out to be off-duty cops from a nearby suburb who hopped off the wheel-equipped pub and chased down the bikers — allegedly knocking them over, holding them against pavement, and pinning them down while threatening to break their arms.
Some of the bikers were arrested, and at least one is pending charges, from the incident.
As for the driver who allegedly hit the pedal pub with his car — he is being held without bail on suspicion of gross-misdemeanor drunken driving and felony criminal vehicular operation causing injury. Police say he was not injured.
