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HomeNewsArchivesDriver Escapes Serious Injury in Dramatic Accident

Driver Escapes Serious Injury in Dramatic Accident

Aug. 16, 2007 — A speeding car ran into a parked SUV on Melvin Evans Highway Thursday, resulting in extensive damage to both vehicles but no serious injuries.
"I could be dead now," said the SUV’s owner, Bradley Christian, shaking his head in amazement after witnessing the wreck.
The accident tossed the unoccupied SUV 65 feet away, where it landed on its roof. The speeding car flipped several times, landing in the middle of the highway. The driver escaped with minor injuries.
"It's hard to tell how fast he was going," said Traffic Commander Sgt. Charles Orange. "But it was in excess of 55 miles per hour."
The police investigation will determine the speed, Orange said. The speed limit on the highway is 55 miles per hour.
Police rerouted traffic from about 1 to 2 p.m. while investigating the wreck, which happened about a mile east of the Hovensa stoplight. A white Ford Focus was traveling west at a high rate of speed, Orange said. The driver reported that a truck cut him off, forcing him to the left shoulder of the road. The Focus collided almost head-on with a blue Ford Escape parked on the shoulder. The driver, identified by police as male, was the only passenger in the car.
The impact caused the Escape to fly into the air, landing in a grassy ditch 65 feet away, according to police measurements. There was no one in the car at the time.
The Focus "flipped several times," Orange said, before it landed in the middle of the two-lane highway. The drivers' injuries were "not life threatening," he said. Blood could be seen on the deployed airbag and streaming down the passenger side door.
Christian watched his Escape go airborne after the Focus hit it.
"I saw it flying like a bird," he said. "He had to have on some speed.”
Christian said he stopped at his house to bring his aunt her blood pressure medicine. With the threat of bad weather, he wanted to make sure her medical needs were taken care of, he said. Christian said he parked his car well off the road. Orange agreed the car was safely parked.
When he was exiting the house preparing to get back in the vehicle, Christian saw his car flying through the air.
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