Drunken Santa and female helper hospitalized with concussions after sleigh accident

A sloppy Santa who may have had a little too much eggnog landed himself and his female helper in the hospital with concussion-like symptoms after a sleigh accident on a busy street in Ustrzykach Dolnych, Poland.

The 51-year-old Santa and his 31-year-old companion were sliding down the street while singing Christmas carols and waving at locals when a car beeped at them, spooking the horse that was pulling the sleigh and sending them flying.

"It was quite extraordinary. They were supposed to have been an attraction at the local market and lots of people were taking their children there to go and see them,” said a passerby who captured the crash on camera, Zdzislaw Molodynski.

"But instead they saw these two, who were clearly under the influence, behaving like they had just come out of a nightclub or something,” Molodynski said. “Then a car started beeping them which threw the horse into a panic. It reared up and sent them smashing into the wall on the corner of the street.”

"It was a mixture of 'Ho, ho, ho' and 'No, no, no.’” he added.

Magda Dudzinska had planned on taking her 7-year-old son to meet St. Nick.

"I'm not happy they had a crash or are in hospital, but I'm delighted we didn't get to meet them,” Dudzinska said. “Who knows what they would have done in that state. They were clearly in no state to deal with children."

The pair could face charges, according to police spokesman Dorota Glazowska.

"Technically, they were drunk while in charge of a vehicle on the road,” Glazowska said. "We are looking at pressing charges."

[Orange News]