An Aurora man faces multiple charges, including impaired driving, after his vehicle slammed into a construction zone last night on Duckworth Street in Barrie.
The vehicle landed in a large hole in the city's east end.
City police received a call Monday night at 9:47 p.m. about a vehicle that had been travelling northbound on Duckworth Street at a high rate of speed. It struck a mound of dirt, became airborne, and crashed into an excavation pit before coming to rest upside down.
Police say the hole and construction area were clearly marked and work has been happening in that area for weeks.
“This was totally preventable — there was no need for this to have happened,” Barrie police communications co-ordinator Peter Leon said. “This was a well-marked construction zone and a very large hole.
"The driver is very lucky as he missed a large piece of concrete in the hole that could have made this fatal," he added.
When police arrived, they located the driver who had crawled out of the vehicle and was being tended to by Simcoe County paramedics.
Rocky Russell Jackson, 29, from Aurora, was arrested and transported to a local hospital where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
As a result of the investigation that followed, Jackson has been charged with operation of a motor vehicle while impaired, operation while impaired (over .80 mgs), dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, unauthorized possession of a weapon, and knowledge of unauthorized possession of a weapon.
None of the allegations have been tested in court.
The accused was later released from custody and is scheduled to appear in a Barrie court on Aug. 30.
