A man allegedly drove drunk down the wrong side of the road with his five-year-old son in the back, before crashing into a police car in Melba on Saturday.
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Police said a patrol car was driving along Kingsford Smith Drive about midnight on Saturday night, when officers saw another car driving on the wrong side of the road and coming straight at them.
Police said they switched their lights on, but the car kept coming at them.
The patrol car was forced to quickly evade the oncoming car, but the cars still collided. They were both travelling about 20km/h when they hit, and police said they "grazed each other's front quarter panel".
A five-year-old boy, police say was the son of the 33-year-old driver from Belconnen, was found in the back seat of the car. No one was hurt in the crash.
The driver was found to be four times over the legal limit after a breath test at Belconnen Police Station returned a reading of 0.220.
Superintendent Kylie Flower said she was appalled by the actions of the drink driver, and said the crash could have ended in tragedy. She said it was "disturbing" that the man had driven with his five-year-old son in the back.
"We do not want this holiday period marred by a road fatality and these recent results could have easily ended that way," she said.
In a separate incident, a man crashed his car near Palmerston shops while five times the legal limit on Sunday.
He had fled the scene after the crash, but members of the public helped police track him down. He was taken to Gungahlin Police Station for a breath analysis and was found to have a reading of 0.290.