Brand-new bodycam footage of the investigation into New Brunswick’s City Council president directly after she drunkenly wrecked her luxury SUV several hundred feet from home.
Officer Taylor Tiongson-Cradic found Suzanne Sicora-Ludwig at the Edgebrook Road crash scene around 11:40 p.m. Friday, March 8, where her Range Rover had struck a tree, according to a police report shared to the city’s website.
Bodycam footage shared in a 1-hour and 30-minute video by DriveThruTours shows Sicora-Ludwig’s 2014 Range Rover up against a tree, with airbag deployment. According to the police report, the crash scene was just a few blocks from the council president’s home on Voorhees Road.
Sicora-Ludwig was unable to explain to Tiongson-Cradic what had happened, noted in the crash report, and the vehicle required towing from the scene.
The council president, displaying slurred speech and unable to provide updated registration, was hospitalized, where an officer overhead her say she’d consumed two martinis, DriveThruTours says citing police papers.
Sicora-Ludwig initially did not consent to having her blood drawn, according to audio from the hospital obtained by DriveThruTours. However, officers obtained a warrant to draw the councilwoman’s blood, which was approved by a superior court judge, DriveThruTours reports.
An analysis of Sicora-Ludwig’s blood drawn at approximately 3:25 a.m., more than four hours after the accident, found she had a blood alcohol level of 0.0263%, according to DriveThruTours and a May 22 news report by New Brunswick Today’s Charlie Kratovil. This would put Sicora-Ludwig’s BAC at more than three times the legal limit of 0.08%.
The councilwoman was later charged with a litany of offenses including but not limited to reckless driving, operating an unregistered vehicle, and DWI, both outlets say.
Sicora-Ludwig’s bio on the City Council website says she’s a 22-year city resident having been first elected in 2017 as vice president. She was sworn in as president in January 2021, during her second term as City Council VP.
Daily Voice has requested comment from New Brunswick Council members.
