A man, in attempt to trick police into thinking his wreck was not caused by drunk driving, poured water on top of a freezing road to create black ice.

According to authorities, Bryan Byers, of Sparta, ran a stop sign and hit a guardrail with a BMW Saturday morning. Shortly afterwards, Alexander Zambenedetti, Byers’ friend, showed up in his vehicle and threw about 5 gallons of water on the road to produce a thin film of ice, transparent enough for the road to be seen through it.

Police said a patrol officer noticed Byers walking the road with Zambenedetti sitting in his vehicle. In the back seat were two buckets of water. Zambenedetti had no shirt on even though the wind chill was 15 below zero at 2:45 a.m.

The Sparta man finally confessed his plan to police. Under the “black ice,” police could see the skid marks from the actual accident. Byers was arrested and charged with a number of offenses, including drunk driving. Zambenedetti was also charged with drunk driving.

A half-ton of salt was used to melt the ice so that the road was passable once again.

Sgt. Dennis Proctor said he’d seen a lot of dumb stunts, but nothing of this magnitude.

Proctor said the officer who first saw Byers running to his friend’s BMW thought he was a bear or deer at first.

According to police, Byers drove his vehicle to the house after hitting the guardrail, which is about half a mile from the crash site. The license plate to Byers’ vehicle, however, was still on the road.