Three hurt when van crashes through fence

By Elizabeth Ridenour
Phoenix City Editor

October 11, 2008 12:31 am

— Three people were injured Friday night when the van they were in crashed through a pipe fence at Elliott Park.
The crash took place at approximately 9:20 p.m. on Altamont Street just north of Sadler Arts Academy.
Injured were the driver, Donald Hughart, 38; Charrie Samaras, 46; and Danielle Gile, 27, all of Muskogee, said Officer Mike Lippman. All three were taken to Muskogee Regional Medical Center. Their conditions were not available Friday night.
Hughart was driving northbound on Altamont when he crashed the van into a 4-inch pipe fence. The impact bowed the fence and pulled three poles and the concrete in which they were embedded, out of the ground.
“He didn’t even attempt to turn and just went through the field,” Lippman said.
Police were looking for a fourth person who police were told was also a passenger. The occupants of the blue mini-van said the fourth person was an Indian female, approximately 25 years old, whose first name was Summer, Lippman said.
Officer C.B. Abel and his canine were called upon to help search the area just in case the fourth person may have been injured or hiding nearby.
More than a dozen officers and firefighters used flashlights and heat-seeking devices to comb the area around the park and school but found nothing.
“We’re going to branch out and make sure there’s nobody we missed,” Lippman said.
When emergency personnel arrived at the park, Samaras and Gile were lying on the ground. Hughart was apprehended at Chicago and Kinney streets, Abel said.
Police could not determine whether anyone was wearing a seat belt, but air bags did deploy, Lippman said.
Police also said they were investigating the possibility that a woman at the emergency room who had been assaulted may have been assaulted by Hughart.

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