TENNERTON – An Alum Creek man was injured late Saturday night after allegedly driving erratically along Stoney Run Road and hitting multiple mailboxes, a fence, a telephone pole and a tree before crashing into the side of a home.
According to the accident report filed by investigating officer Deputy Cole Bender with the Upshur County Sheriff’s Office, the E911 Communication Center received a call at 11:59 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22 reporting a one-vehicle wreck across Stoney Run Road. According to the report, Bender and Lt. Marshall Powers with the Upshur County Sheriff’s Office responded to Stoney Run Road for a motor vehicle accident.
Upon arrival, the officers found a white 2018 Ford F-250 pickup, driven by Michael R. Sloan, 26, of Alum Creek, on its side and in a yard against the residence at 463 Stoney Run Road. When the deputies examined the scene, they concluded it appeared that the vehicle’s path had reportedly started at 313 Stone Run Road and the driver, Sloan, had backed into the grass on the property and then took off west on Stoney Run.
The vehicle appeared to run off the left side of the road, “taking out mailboxes” belonging to multiple residents along the road, the accident report says. According to the file, the vehicle then appeared to veer back onto the roadway before again running off the left side of the road, hitting a telephone pole, which caused damage to connected lines.
“The vehicle stayed off the roadway, taking out several more mailboxes located near 423 and 405 Stoney Run Road, which contained mailboxes for the surrounding neighbors,” Bender wrote in the report. “The vehicle continued through yards, taking out part of a fence located at 443 Stoney Run Road. The vehicle then appeared to hit a tree in the yard of 463 Stoney Run Road, spinning it around and hitting the roof of the residents of the property, causing damage.”
The report noted that the odor of an alcoholic beverage could be detected from the vehicle, and the driver seemed to be intoxicated, so a follow-up DUI investigation will be conducted.
The report indicated that Sloan was initially transported via Upshur EMS to St. Joseph’s Hospital, but Lisa Wharton, the hospital’s vice president for marketing and public relations, said he was never admitted there but instead immediately transferred to J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown. A spokesperson for WVU Medicine and Ruby Memorial Hospital said Sloan was no longer listed as a patient as of Tuesday afternoon.
The accident report alleged that Sloan was “driving recklessly, driving to endanger, driving negligently, failed to maintain control of the vehicle and was driving on the wrong side of the road.”
Chelsie Rexroad and her husband Shaun own the home the vehicle crashed into that night.
“It was just at midnight – we were asleep – and when we heard tires squealing, Shaun started to get up, but then we heard a loud crash and the entire house shook,” Rexroad said. “We walked outside, and he yelled, ‘call 911,’ I ran outside and from our front porch, we could see the underside of the truck, so it hit the tree and flipped, what looked like upside-down, and hit our roof and our porch; it was pretty terrifying, very nerve-racking.”
She said they are currently trying to find a contractor to evaluate the damage to their home.
“It’s just wild – the gutter’s ripped off, there are cracks in the porch, and he ran through our neighbor’s fence when he came onto our property,” Rexroad said. “There is glass all over the ground and puddles of diesel because it was lifted F-250 Super Duty, so there’s just glass everywhere, rocks everywhere, dirt everywhere.”
