Pleasant Prairie Officer honored for saving life of alleged drunk driver

By: Stephanie Staudinger

Posted: Apr 9, 2019 6:51 PM CDT

PLEASANT PRAIRIE, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A Pleasant Prairie Police Officer was honored on Tuesday for saving the life of an alleged drunk driver.

Officer Quiroz was awarded a Department Challenge Coin.

On April 1, Officer Quiroz was on patrol with her Field Training Officer in the 11000 block of Green Bay Road when something along the ditch line caught her attention.

The officers went back to check and found a seriously injured 28-year-old man laying in the ditch.

He was involved in a single-vehicle crash in which his vehicle had flipped onto its roof and was not easily visible from the road.

The man was taken by Flight for Life to a local hospital.

He has also been charged with operating while intoxicated.

"With the cold temperatures at the time and the seriousness of the injuries, without her intervention the victim may not have been found until daybreak and could have had a far worse outcome," the Pleasant Prairie Police Department said.