The driver of a pickup truck that smashed into retired professor Don Collins' old Conway home at 1806 Bruce St. late Tuesday night led police on a harrowing chase through some of Conway's oldest residential neighborhoods before crashing, according to a police report.
Collins woke at 11:23 p.m. upon hearing "a very heavy thud and of course the sirens that were chasing him."
He looked out his window to see police in defensive positions behind the doors of their cruisers and repeatedly yelling for the driver to get out of the vehicle and get down on the ground.
Hernandez Silvestre, 24, of 1615 Bruce St., was pulled from the wrecked vehicle and transported by MEMS to Conway Regional Medical Center for injuries to his face and chest. Upon his release, he was arrested on suspicion of first-offense DWI, fleeing in a vehicle, careless or prohibited driving, no driver's license, no insurance and no seat belt.
The first sign of trouble came when officer John Zanin of the Conway Police Department observed the 1994 Ford F-150 run into a curb while traveling south on Harkrider Street just north of Prairie Street. The officer saw that the truck was being followed by a sport sedan with activated hazard flashers and a passenger frantically waving their arms.
The officer accelerated, maneuvering behind the pickup and activating his cruiser's blue light and siren. The driver of the pickup did not stop, instead continuing to swerve from lane to lane and plough over the curb.
Silvestre slowed while approaching a green light at Sixth and Harkrider streets, leading the pursuing officer to believe that he may be about to pull over or stop, but the driver again sped away, striking another curb at the St. Joseph Cemetery. Then Silvestre turned west onto Bruce Street, cutting the corner and driving directly over the Western Union railroad tracks rather than the crossing.
The man then accelerated to more than 50 mph and almost lost control at Bruce and Locust streets, crossing the center line before regaining a measure of control over his vehicle. At this point the officer slowed, not wanting to "push" the driver to continue speeding.
As the truck sped west toward the four-way stop at Bruce Street and Conway Boulevard, an unsuspecting motorist passing through the intersections headed south was almost struck as Silvestre blew through the stop sign and "didn't even touch his brakes," the report states.
After the near-miss, the driver again mounted the curb, almost striking a utility pole before his truck "violently struck the curb at Davis and Bruce (streets) causing the truck to violently shudder and lose control," the report reads.
An Arkansas Motor Vehicle Crash Report states that as the truck approached Davis Street it veered off the road and travelled through "the yards of all the residences between 1720 and 1806 Bruce St." The vehicle crossed Davis Street to the north of the intersection, striking an embankment on Collins' property that the homeowner credits with slowing the truck enough that it smashed into his home rather than plow through it.
Still, a room of his home originally built as a porch and later converted into a sunroom was severely damaged.
"It moved the entire porch about six inches off the foundation," Collins said, "and of course it's got cracks all up in the top of it and all on the outside. The foundation is all crushed in. I suppose they'll have to use hydraulic jacks to move it back onto its foundation and then go through and reinforce all the joints with new nails and things."
Collins was disappointed to hear that the driver did not have liability insurance.
(Staff writer Joe Lamb can be reached by e-mail at joe.lamb@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1238. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)
