Two Unity brothers’ early morning run for alcohol led to a brawl during the trip, landing one in a hospital with severe facial injuries and the other in the Westmoreland County Prison charged with aggravated assault and DUI.

Steven R. Clem, 29, was arrested just after 3 a.m. Tuesday by state troopers who found him asleep in the back seat of his 2007 black GMC Tahoe after it crashed into a snow bank in front of a home in the 500 block of Youngstown Ridge Road.

Trooper Nathan Ellwood said state police were called to a residence for a report of a physical disturbance. According to police reports, as troopers pulled up to the home they discovered Clem’s SUV partially on the road and in a snow bank.

Clem was asleep in the vehicle and when police woke him “he was highly intoxicated,” Ellwood reported in court papers. Clem was “unsure of the events leading up to the incident, but recalled driving into the snow bank.”

Inside the house, troopers found Clem’s younger brother, Daniel, 25, who had severe injuries to his face requiring “immediate medical attention.”

Before he was taken to Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, the younger Clem said the pair had been drinking and decided to drive to a store to get more alcohol.

“During the trip, (Daniel said) an argument ensued over Steven forgetting his driver’s license,” Ellwood wrote.

Daniel said he pulled over as Steven became “highly combative” and “ripped” him out of the vehicle, Ellwood wrote.

Steven punched Daniel multiple times, knocking him unconscious, Ellwood wrote. Steven awoke to find the SUV stuck in the snow bank and ran to his parents’ residence to seek help for his injuries.

Daniel was taken to the hospital’s trauma center for treatment of multiple facial injuries including “possible broken bones,” Ellwood said.

Steven Clem was taken to the barracks in Hempfield where he was given a breathalyzer test that registered .237 percent, or nearly three times the legal limit for driving in Pennsylvania, troopers said.

He was arraigned on charges of aggravated assault/causing severe bodily injury, driving under the influence of alcohol, unsafe driving, harassment and simple assault, according to court dockets. He was released from the county prison Tuesday afternoon on recognizance bond pending a preliminary hearing Feb. 7.

In Pennsylvania, alcohol can only be sold between 7 a.m. and 2 a.m. the following day, according to state law.

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