BEDFORD – An intoxicated Bedford man was arrested on Sunday after he crashed his vehicle on Tunnelton Road.
Police arrested 33-year-old Eric Johnson on charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, leaving the scene of an accident, and OWI endangerment.
According to a Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department police report, Johnson was traveling south on Tunnelton Road when his 2004 Chevrolet Trailblazer went off the west side of the road and collided with a stone wall. Johnson’s vehicle traveled back onto the roadway crossed the center line and ran off the east side of the road and stopped on an embankment.
Johnson then fled the scene on foot before police and first responders arrived.
There was damage to the front right fender and front grill of the truck. The stone wall was intact but had shifted inward. Damages were estimated between $5,001 and $10,000.
Johnson was found by police a few miles from the crash site. Johnson told police he experienced driver shaft failure causing the vehicle to run off the road and strike the wall. Johnson was the only person in the vehicle.
Johnson suffered a laceration to his lower lip and was transported to IU Health Hospital for treatment of his injury and then transported to jail.
