After working 12-hours at the polls on Election Day, one Cheatham County homeowner got a wakeup call she did not expect: a car crashing into her house at about 6 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 7.
“It sounded like a bomb went off,” Barbara Nicholson, 76, said. Nicholson jumped up and looked out of her bedroom window of her home on Bracey Circle near Old Clarksville Pike and saw people were knocking on her door and ringing her doorbell to make sure she was okay.
While she was shaken badly but not hurt, Nicholson said she was concerned about “the big bang” that had just happened. When she got to the den, debris was everywhere.
“I could barely see the car,” she said, since it was covered by siding and splintered wood. Somehow the man who was driving crawled out and was not injured, Nicholson said.
According to Cheatham County Sheriff Mike Breedlove, the responding deputies said the driver was on his way to work when he came upon a trash truck with its lights on. The driver told police he swerved to avoid hitting the trash truck and had an equipment failure, stating his brakes went out and he lost his ability to steer on the wet grass.
Speed did not appear to be a factor in the accident, the driver was wearing his seatbelt, and the driver appeared not to be impaired, Breedlove said.
No citations were issued but deputies will be contacting the District Attorney’s Office on Monday to discuss the details of the investigation and to determine whether any citations are warranted.
