Charges: Soon after DWI bust, extremely drunk and unlicensed driver hits MSP shuttle and injures 6

Less than two weeks after being caught driving drunk, a man was extremely intoxicated when he crashed head-on into a Twin Cities airport shuttle and left six people injured including two youngsters in his pickup, according to charges.

Michael John Tindal, 33, of Austin, Minn., was charged Monday in Hennepin County District Court with four counts of criminal vehicular operation, two counts of child endangerment and one count of drunken driving in connection with the high-speed collision on Jan. 30 — his birthday — on 34th Avenue S. near Interstate 494 in Bloomington.

A nationwide warrant has been issued for Tindal’s arrest.

A law enforcement test of Tindal’s degree of intoxication found his blood alcohol content soon after the collision was 0.281%, more than 3 ½ times the legal limit for driving in Minnesota, the charges read.

Four people in the shuttle all suffered broken bones and other injuries, according to the criminal complaint. The most seriously injured passenger was found unconscious by police with a traumatic brain injury, the complaint noted.

In the pickup with Tindal were a 6-year-old nephew and a 3-year-old niece. The boy had a cut lip and glass shards in his hair, while the girl had “seat belt burns” on her neck and chest, the complaint read.

Because of his drunken driving arrest earlier this year, Tindal was driving at the time of the crash after having his license revoked, a state Department of Public Safety spokesman said Tuesday afternoon.

According to the charges:

Airport police officers arrived at the scene and saw the pickup and the shuttle with severe-front end damage. Officers saw Tindal in the front seat smelling of alcohol. Inside the vehicle were six empty 16-ounce beer cans, one partly empty 12-ounce beer can, and two wine bottles. One was full and the other empty.

Tindal admitted he had been drinking beer and celebrating his birthday. He could not recall how much he had to drink.

Along with the two children in the pickup, his sister also was a passenger. She appeared to be drunk as well.

Three witnesses, one of them the shuttle’s driver, told police that they saw the pickup heading the wrong way on 34th “at a high rate of speed” before impact, the complaint read.

On Jan. 18, Tindal was pulled over in Mower County in his pickup after being spotted driving erratically on Hwy. 218. He pleaded guilty to fourth-degree drunken driving and was sentenced on Feb. 24 to a year’s supervised probation and 90 days in jail, but that time was suspended.