LaPorte Police Capt. Tom Heath issued a press release Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, giving details about an accident on Jan. 19 in downtown LaPorte:
“By now, most people in the City of LaPorte are probably aware of a rather spectacular impaired-driving crash that occurred at 1:53 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2012, in LaPorte. However, I think that some additional comments are warranted by the relative severity of this crash and the fact that, as bad as it was, it could certainly have been much worse.
“The crash began when a vehicle driven by Tonya Wollum, 32, of rural LaPorte County, jumped the curb in front of 615 Michigan Ave. and struck Ameer Henderson, 35, a pedestrian who was seated on a bench outside that address. The vehicle then continued north up the sidewalk for about 75 yards until it came to rest in front of 605 Michigan Ave. In addition to striking Mr. Henderson, who suffered a serious fracture to his right leg, and the bench he was sitting on, the suspect vehicle also struck and caused damage to a trash can, a lamp post and four different buildings.
“After the vehicle came to rest, Tonya Wollum attempted to flee the scene on foot but was quickly apprehended by Patrol Specialist Rodolfo Esparza. Ms. Wollum’s BAC after the crash was .15%. Tonya Wollum was charged with Operating While Intoxicated Causing Serious Bodily Injury and Failure to Stop at an Accident with Serious Bodily Injury, both Class D felonies. Patrol Specialist Vince Bowman was the investigating officer on this crash and was assisted by Sergeant Paul Brettin, Corporal Patrick Sightes and Patrol Specialists Christopher Schoof and Rodolfo Esparza.
“The thing that bears comment here is that the driver involved in this crash was apparently so impaired that she either did not realize that she was driving on the sidewalk, or she realized that she was but either did not care or was not able to figure out how to rectify that problem.
“This case once again highlights how dangerous impaired driving is to the rest of the people on the road and in the community. That block is fairly busy in the daytime and we can all be thankful that only one person suffered serious injury as a result of this case, as tragic as even one injury is.
“This crash, in addition to the day-to-day danger of less spectacular impaired driving, is the reason that we put a lot of effort into impaired-driving enforcement. We have a number of serious issues facing us, and impaired driving is but one of them, but we will continue working on all of the issues to make our community safer for all of us.”
The LaPorte Police Department participates in the DUI: Taskforce Indiana and Big City/Big County traffic safety grant programs administered through the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.
