A street sign impaled a tree on Broad Street as a result of predawn accident that destroyed a utility pole and led to a shutdown of the road for several hours Sunday. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Two motorists face charges of drunk driving after their involvement in accidents four hours apart over the weekend, Red Bank police said.
Alari Ramos-Castro, 33, was arrested for DWI after an accident reported here that left a sprawl of wreckage along a block of Chestnut Street at around 10 p.m. Saturday night.
Driving a pickup truck westbound past the Red Bank Armory Ice Complex, Ramos-Castro smashed into a parked pickup, tearing off its left rear wheel, said Captain Darren McConnell.
Full details of what ensued were not available late Monday afternoon, but Ramos-Castro’s vehicle ended up on its left side, a third vehicle smashed into a fence outside the borough DPW yard on the opposite side of the street, and a fourth vehicle was lightly damaged.
Ramos-Castro, of Red Bank, and the sole other passenger of his vehicle were briefly hospitalized and released, with the driver being taken into custody.
In the second incident, at about 2:10 a.m Sunday, 29-year-old Scott Richardson of Maplewood plowed his Nissan into a street sign and utility pole as he headed south on Broad Street between Irving Place and East Bergen Place, McConnell said.
Richardson, the sole occupant of the vehicle, was uninjured. He was arrested on the scene.
The crash sent the street sign flying into a tree, where it remained impaled Monday afternoon, and knocked out power locally.
The pole was replaced, but as of Monday afternoon, an office building nearby remained without electrical power.
