Sleeping driver awakens to crash
A sleeping driver awoke to find himself slamming into the rear of a stopped vehicle in front of Country Club Market Monday afternoon.
The driver, John N. Devoe, 65, of Brentwood told investigators he became tired after driving for a long distance and must have fallen asleep at the wheel just before 3 p.m. Monday as he was traveling toward McMinnville on Highway 55.
According to Highway Patrolman Gary Myers, Devoe came up behind a Chevy pickup driven by Bobby R. Freeze, 55, of Manchester which was stopped in the eastbound lane at a red traffic light at the intersection of Highway 55 and Todd Lane.
Devoe told officers he must have awoke just before impact as he saw the truck in front of him an instant before the collision but was unable to avoid the crash.
The crash spun the Freeze vehicle around in the road, leaving Freeze temporarily pinned inside the wreckage. Freeze was extricated from his truck and taken to River Park Hospital by the Warren County Emergency Ambulance Service where he was treated for neck injuries. Meanwhile, the Devoe vehicle sustained significant front-end damage and came to rest in a subdivision several yards down the road from the crash site. Devoe was uninjured.
According to Myers, both drivers were wearing seatbelts which likely contributed to lesser injuries given the extent of damage to both vehicles.