Police said the driver of a car that slammed into a parked pickup truck on Waddell Circle on Wednesday afternoon fled after the two-car crash but was caught quickly.
The crash was reported at about 4:50 p.m. at 161 Waddell Circle.
Chris Townsend, who lives on Waddell Circle, said he was walking upstairs when he heard the sirens. He was on his way to his sister’s house across the street.
He made it as far as his porch when he said he saw a white four-door car driving fast down the street. The car tried to make the righthand curve on the wet, narrow one-way residential street, but it wasn’t able to, Townsend said.
Instead, it went straight and plowed into a small Chevrolet pickup truck parked on the left side of the road, pushing it about 30 feet into the front yard at 161 Waddell Circle, where it came to rest against utility pole cables, Townsend said.
He said the white car spun and hit a tree.
“He was going so fast,” Townsend said.
Townsend’s mother, Deborah Driggers, said she hurried upstairs to make sure her son, who would have crossed the street a few seconds later, was okay after the crash.
“It was so loud,” Driggers said. “It sounded like something blew up.”
Townsend said the driver of the white car fled behind an apartment building, but police tackled him.
“It was that quick,” he said. “The police were on him. They had him.”
Neighbors were alarmed because they said children live in every building on the block. The only reason the kids weren’t out playing on Wednesday afternoon was the rain, the neighbors said.
The driver of the white car was reported to have minor injuries, although the nature and extent of them wasn’t immediately available Wednesday.
There were at least eight Oak Ridge Police Department officers at the scene, and an Anderson County Sheriff’s Department canine unit responded as well to help conduct a brief search near the crash.
The owner of the red truck said it was his transportation to and from work.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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