Man arrested for allegedly drunk-driving a Zamboni during high school ice hockey game

The Zamboni driver at a high school ice hockey game in Fargo, North Dakota, was arrested for suspected drunk-driving on Friday night. It happened during the Davies High School and Williston High School girls' game at the Southside Arena in Fargo. The driver, Steven Anderson, 27, was arrested just before the end of the second period at around 8:15pm. No one was hurt.



“I’ve been here for 22 years and we have not had an incident like this before,” said Jim Larson, director of finance and human resources for the Fargo Park District, which operates the arena. Larson said the personnel issue will be formally addressed on Monday but Anderson will not return to his duties in the meantime.

Larson said spectators and school officials noticed the erratic Zamboni driving and a Fargo Public Schools employee called Fargo Police. Anderson was booked into Cass County Jail on suspicion of DUI. Larson said this is a serious issue but not a recurring one for the park district. He said this incident was caused by an individual who made a poor choice.



“I don’t want to in any way dismiss how serious this is,” Larson said. “We’ll review the situation to determine how this happened and what we can do to make it even more fool proof.” Larson said he was notified about the incident and arrived at the rink at about 8:30pm. He said another Zamboni driver was called in but the coaches decided to play on the rough ice rather than wait for the other driver to arrive.

According to The Smoking Gun, this is only the third time in recorded history that a man has been arrested for driving a Zamboni while intoxicated.