More details released on wreck
Published 6:27 pm Friday, April 29, 2011
More details have been released regarding the accident at the intersection of Shotwell Street and College Road last Friday, April 22.
Four people were hurt, including two seriously, after a Ford F-250 pickup truck smashed into the driver’s side of a Dodge Neon. The car spun around and slid down an embankment into a drainage ditch in front of Bainbridge College.
The driver of the Neon was identified as Heather Nicole Bowen, 27, of 256 Allen Phillips Road, Climax. She was ejected from the car and suffered serious injuries. Bowen was taken by ambulance to Memorial Hospital in Bainbridge, before later being transferred to a hospital in Tallahassee, Fla.
One-year-old Audrey Finuff, whom Bowen was looking after, was sitting in a car seat in the left rear seat of the Neon. She was seriously injured, including several broken bones and a concussion, her grandfather Quinton Finuff said. Audrey Finuff was first taken by ambulance to Memorial Hospital. She was transferred by emergency medical helicopter to a hospital in Tallahassee, Fla., and was later taken to Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Fla., where she is recovering.
Two other children, 10-year-old Sidney Strickland and 11-year-old Taylor Swanner, were also sitting in the Neon’s back seat. They had bumps and bruises and were also taken to Memorial Hospital, but are now recovering well at home, said their mother, Rachel Trolinger.
A fifth passenger, 34-year-old Mark Strickland, was sitting in the front passenger seat of the Neon but was uninjured.
The driver of the pickup truck was identified as Davis Monroe Wallace, 16, of 2042 Ashton Way, Bainbridge. He was wearing his seat belt and was not hurt in the accident.
According to a Bainbridge Public Safety accident report, the Neon was traveling east in the outside east bound lane of U.S. 84 East. Wallace was waiting to turn left from the westbound left-turn lane at the intersection of U.S. 84 and College Road. When Wallace turned left, he struck the driver’s side of the Neon, which spun counter-clockwise and left the roadway. The Neon entered the drainage ditch, initially rolling on its driver’s side and landing on the front passenger side, before coming to a final rest right side up.
According to the BPS report, the accident is still under investigation with citations pending.