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Truck smashes into house; driver arrested

Neighbors who heard the crash saw the pickup turn onto a street about four blocks away. Deputies found the suspect there.

By JORGE SANCHEZ
Published December 1, 2005

INVERNESS - Law officers arrested a man on a DUI charge Tuesday night after his pickup plowed into a house at the end of a dead-end street.

Patrick Timothy Drake, 39, of 3632 S Ventura Ave., Inverness, smashed the truck through a bedroom wall at 6001 E Peach St. in the Inverness Highlands, according to an arrest report.

The pickup was eastbound on Arbor Street, which ends at Cascade Avenue. The driver drove past a stop sign, skidded across Cascade, crossed the front yard and hit the house. The crash made a large hole in the wall and tore up portions of the front yard. The noise from the crash could be heard for blocks.

The occupants of the house, Clarence Haber, 77, and his wife, Louise Foster, 71, were both at home but in other rooms. Foster said she was still awake about 11:30 p.m., when the truck plowed through the wall of the guest bedroom. She and her husband were shaken by the loud crash, but not injured.

Foster said she looked out the front door and saw the driver of the truck backing out of the debris, driving across her lawn and heading south on Cascade. Firefighters covered the hole with a tarp Tuesday night.

Drake was quickly located by sheriff's deputies, but the Florida Highway Patrol eventually was called in to investigate the crash and wound up making the arrest.

Neighbors who heard the crash saw the truck turn onto Sage Street about four blocks away. When deputies arrived, they went to a home on Sage, where Drake was found.

The arrest report states that the 1986 Ford pickup had pieces of rain gutters, stucco and block on its hood from the impact with the house. A bumper grill, a headlight and a cooler were left at the crash site from the truck. Drake had a cut above his left eye.

Drake told troopers that he fled the accident because he was scared. He also said that he had been at a pub a few blocks away, the arrest report said.

At the Citrus County jail, Drake refused to take sobriety tests and to sign the traffic citations, the report stated.

The FHP report stated the odor of alcohol from Drake was so strong that the trooper had to roll down the windows of his patrol car while he made a computer entry.

Drake was charged with DUI, leaving the scene of an accident and refusing to sign a traffic citation. He posted $1,000 bail and was released from jail Wednesday.

--Jorge Sanchez can be reached at 860-7313 or e-mail at sanchez@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 1, 2005, 01:07:16]