A suspected drunken driver in Medford plowed into garbage cans, nearly ran over an elderly couple out walking their dogs and wound up briefly in a ditch during a boozy Taco Bell run that stretched for miles Tuesday morning, authorities said.

It took a group of passersby to finally stop Diane Marie Wilcox, 39, from driving her 2012 Mercedes Benz SUV, the Jackson County Sheriff's Office said. The suspect was so intoxicated that emergency personnel rushed her to a hospital for medical treatment.

Authorities said the woman had a blood-alcohol content of 0.55 percent — almost seven times the legal limit in Oregon.

"For most people, it would have probably been fatal," said Sgt. Julie Denney, a sheriff's spokeswoman.

The trouble began, the sheriff's office said, when Wilcox decided to embark on a trip from her home on Pioneer Road to a Taco Bell on Center Drive nearly six miles away.

As she returned from the fast-food chain around 9:35 a.m., the suspect's silver Mercedes began veering into garbage cans at the side of the road, witnesses told authorities. Then Wilcox almost struck an elderly man and woman who were walking two dogs along Kings Highway, Denney said.

"They literally had to jump out of the way," the sheriff's spokeswoman said.

Wilcox later blew past her own driveway and wound up in a ditch, according to witnesses. She managed to maneuver out of the ditch and strike a few more garbage cans with her car before people on the street forced her to a stop, the sheriff's office said.

Her car was impounded and towed away at the scene.

Deputies said they planned to charge Wilcox on suspicion of driving under the influence of intoxicants, driving while suspended, reckless driving and two counts of reckless endangerment.

She was also cited for driving while uninsured, failure to drive within a lane and driving with an open container of alcohol, the sheriff's office said.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

skavanaugh@oregonian.com

503-294-7632 II @shanedkavanaugh