A 24-year-old Bainbridge Island man was charged with driving under the influence in Kitsap County District Court Monday after police said he crashed his car on Highway 305 and then ran off into the woods.

The accident occurred just after 10 p.m. Saturday, May 2 near Reitan Road.

According to a Washington State Patrol investigation report, the Bainbridge man drove a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu off the road while heading north on the highway. Police found the vehicle sunk into the muddy ditch with its air bags deployed.

Bainbridge police were already at the scene when the State Patrol arrived. Bainbridge police said they had found the driver nearby after he fled up a hill and into the woods just east of the crash site.

The driver, who was covered in mud, said he didn’t remember the accident. He told the State Patrol he had been awake for 23 hours, was very tired and fell asleep while driving. He also admitted drinking beer before the crash.

As police talked to the driver, he was having trouble staying seated in the back of the patrol car and couldn’t keep his balance, and he also tried to lie down across the back seat of the patrol car to sleep.

Police also said the driver’s speech was very slurred, his eyes were watery and bloodshot, and he smelled strongly of intoxicants. He was too intoxicated to walk on his own and had to be held up while being escorted to another patrol car.

After discovering the driver did not have identification, police ran the temporary registration on the vehicle and determined the driver’s name and then confirmed his identity through his photo on file with the state Department of Licensing.

The driver was taken to the Suquamish Police Station for a breath test, but the first one failed when the driver could not give a continuous breath.

After the first breath test registered .229, the driver said he needed to talk to an attorney.

After getting advice from an on-call tribal lawyer, he gave two more breath samples — which came in at .234 and .222 — and put his head down on the breath test table and tried to sleep.

The driver was then taken to Kitsap County Jail for booking, and officers said he still needed help to walk through the sally port of the jail.

He was booked for DUI at 2 a.m. Sunday, May 3 and bail was set at $5,000.