Police arrested two men Saturday night after a pickup truck rammed through the barriers at the bottom of Jefferson Hill on East Union Street, mangling the truck body and wrenching at least two tires from their axles. No one was injured.
Jerad Holmberg and Thomas Gray, both 18, of Miamisburg, were arrested shortly after the accident, said Athens Police Department Officer Roger Deardorff.
Holmberg was charged with driving under the influence and posted bond yesterday. Gray was charged with public intoxication and underage consumption of alcohol and was released on his own recognizance. Both will appear in Athens County Municipal Court today. Deardorff said both men were drunk, but he did not immediately know their blood alcohol levels.
Bystanders Saturday night instantly recognized the battered red Chevrolet Extreme S-10 because of its customized body and window decals. They said they had seen it recklessly tearing around the streets Uptown for several minutes before the crash.
We saw him at the intersection of Court and Union streets near the Burrito Buggy
and he spun his tires and sped off on Court Street said Chris Strong, a University of Cincinnati student who was walking with friends down the hill near Lincoln Hall.
Strong said he estimated the truck had blazed up Court Street at around 50 or 60 mph. Later in his walk east, he saw the truck again on University Terrace.
They almost hit a guy at the top of Jeff Hill Strong said.
Renee Bowman, 22, an Ohio University education major, walked with Strong east on Union Street. She said she had first noticed the truck on West Union, driving toward the Court Street intersection.
They were playing really loud music
she said. They were honking and shouting at people and flicking people off.
The Athens Police Department, the Ohio University Police Department and the Athens Fire Department responded to the accident. From between 9 and 10 p.m., people walking Uptown found the bottom of Jeff Hill awash in red and white emergency lights. Police needed two tow trucks to remove the pickup, which had only one functioning wheel - one truck dragged the wreck off the street and into the parking lot behind Lincoln Hall and the other winched it onto a flatbed to cart it off.
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Philip Ewing
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Police tow a pickup truck that crashed through the barriers on the bottom of Jefferson Hill on East Union Street. Police arrested two men from Miamisburg in connection with the crash and charged both with alcohol-related offenses.
