Man arrested as DUI hit-and-run suspect

Police arrested a Costa Mesa man suspected of broadsiding a vehicle carrying a 1-month-old, police said. Police suspect the man was driving while intoxicated.

The accident was reported just before 8 p.m. Monday after Kirk Douglas Bernier stormed out of his home in the 1900 block of Pomona Avenue and drove out of an alleyway, police said. He was reportedly very upset and had been drinking for some time, witnesses told police.

According to another witness statement, Bernier was fighting with someone inside his house before getting into his 1996 Ford F-150 pickup, Sgt. Marty Carver said.

Bernier pulled his truck out of an alleyway onto Pomona, colliding into a 2003 black Chevy Impala with the baby as a passenger, police said. The Impala’s driver, a 61-year-old man, received a cut above his right eye, Carver said.

The baby was taken to a local hospital by the parents, Carver said. How the victim and the baby are related was not released by police.

Bernier, who had left the scene, was arrested at 11 p.m. after returning to the house, police said.

He was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence and hit-and-run, both causing bodily injury, police said. Tuesday Bernier was taken to Orange County Jail where he is being held on $50,000 bail, police said.