A 26-year-old Long Branch man was charged with drunk driving and possession of cocaine after a dramatic crash on East Bergen Place Tuesday night, Red Bank police say.
Soukchind Thavone, who fled the wreckage on foot with neighbors chasing after him, remains hospitalized at Riverview Medical Center with non-life-threatening lacerations and internal injuries suffered in the 10:29p crash, says Capt. Darren McConnell.
Thavone was traveling east on East Bergen when he drove up onto a lawn just past South Street and plowed into the side of an SUV parked in a driveway, McConnell tells redbankgreen. The SUV went airborne, crashing into the porch of a residence before coming to rest on its roof on the front lawn.
The silver Audi Thavone was driving also flipped over and landed on its roof. Thavone had borrowed the car from a friend, McConnell says.
With local residents emerging from their homes at the sound of the crash, Thavone pulled himself from the overturned car and took off on foot, with neighbors chasing him one block west, where he collapsed at the corner of Hudson Avenue. He was arrested there by Patrolmen Beau Broadley and Bob Campanella, and later charged with DWI and possession of cocaine.
An investigation into the case continues, McConnell says.
