news-record.com

GREENSBORO - A man police allege was intoxicated when his van ran off the road and struck a boy told a local television news station he can't remember what happened but was sober at the time.

"I was just putzing around the neighborhood in the van and I just don't know how everything went so wrong," Michael Charles Parks, 40, told WFMY News 2 reporter Julia Bagg.

Greensboro police said Parks was driving a Chevrolet van about 2:40 p.m. Tuesday north on South Lindell Road when he drove through a stop sign at Walker Avenue.

The van narrowly missed a telephone pole as it went off the road to the left, down a small hill and hit a tree at the edge of the creek.

The van hit one of two boys playing there.

The second boy was unhurt.

The injured boy remained in critical condition Wednesday, police said.

Police did not identify the injured boy Wednesday. The boy's mother declined to be interviewed when contacted by hospital staff.

Parks, of 3803 Parkwood Drive, was charged with driving while intoxicated and driving while his license was revoked.

He could not be reached for comment by the News & Record on Wednesday.

But in his interview with WFMY, Parks blamed exhaustion for what happened, saying he hadn't slept in days.

"I was stone cold sober when this happened I guarantee you that," he told WFMY. "I hadn't drank in three days and I hadn't taken drugs, marijuana in over four."

In 2005, Parks pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated and received a 120-day suspended sentence.

Two DWI charges in 2007 were also dismissed.