Published: November 05, 2009 11:42 am      

Path of destruction

Man believed to be intoxicated hits vehicle head on before crashing

By Randy Mitchell

Staff Writer

ADA — A man believed to have been intoxicated left a path of destruction down neighborhood streets before crashing in a driveway Wednesday.

Gilberto Davila, 26, Ada, reportedly ran over several street signs and banged into parked cars before slamming head-on into a moving vehicle, leaving the scene, and then crashing off a driveway at 6:45 p.m.

Davila was driving a gold van south on Cherry Street where he hit street signs and parked cars. Brent Harper, an off-duty Chickasaw Nation Lighthorse police officer, witnessed most of the melee.

“Me and my wife were fixing to go to a friend of mine’s house,” Harper said. “We walked out into the driveway and I saw him hit a (parked) car over on Cherry (Street).”

Harper got inside his private vehicle and followed Davila, who turned east on Kings Road where he slammed head-on into a vehicle driving west.

Jim Begin was driving with his wife Martha when Davila’s van drifted into the westbound lane.

“We were in our lane and he started coming over and I thought, ‘What in the world? What is he doing?’” Jim Begin said. “So I stopped. I Thought maybe he didn’t see me and then he just plowed right into us.”

Martha Begin complained of minor head pain and was taken to Valley View Regional Hospital by Valley View EMS.

“I think she’ll be okay. It’s just precautionary,” Jim Begin said at the scene.

Davila continued west into the driveway of a house at the intersection of Kings Road and Broadway. The driveway, which curves, is on a hillside with a six-feet drop-off on one side.

As Davila was rounding the curve, he drove off the edge. The vehicle flipped and landed upside down wedged between a wall and a tree.

Firefighters and EMS were able to remove him from the wreckage and take him to the hospital for unknown injuries. Police at the scene said Davila was conscious and had slurred speech but didn’t seem as though he was in any pain.

Davila was later arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, leaving the scene of a personal injury accident and driving under suspension.

This was at least the second DUI arrest for Ada police Wednesday. Detective Tracy Jackson was driving west on Main just before 1 p.m. when hew saw a Nissan pickup driving east in the westbound lanes.

The pickup turned into Wilson’s Tire Shop on west Main and stopped just before crashing into the business. An employee of Wilson’s said he was afraid the man was going to drive into the store.

The driver, Shane Brooks Green, 28, Pauls Valley, reportedly got out of the vehicle and asked where the metal place was.

Jackson pulled in behind him and called for additional officers. Sobriety tests were performed on Green and his passenger, Deborah Williams, 32, Pauls Valley, which they both reportedly failed.

Green was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of intoxicants and Williams for public intoxication.