Atoka Man Arrested For DUI After Crashing Lawn Mower

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol arrested an Atoka man Friday after they say he drunkenly left the scene of an injury crash while on his riding lawn mower.

Troopers told KXII, the CBS affiliate in Sherman, Texas, that Gary Ratliff, 61, was seen riding his lawn mower against traffic on the side of Highway 7 Friday morning.

The OHP says a PSO truck managed to void the mower but then an Atoka County worker in a gravel truck couldn't slow down fast enough to swerve around Ratliff and collided with the ,mower, knocking them both into a ditch.

"All these cars backed up and we saw all these cops come in from town," said Kelsey James, who lives near the crash site.

Troopers said Ratliff rode off on the lawn mower but the OHP arrested him a short time later.

"All I heard was a drunk guy on a lawn mower causing an accident, which is really a first for me to hear around here," Lydia Thomas said, who lives in Atoka.

The county truck was heavily damaged and the driver was treated at a hospital. The driver of the PSO truck was uninjured.

Gary Ratliff remains in the Atoka County Jail.