Driver Plows Through Guardrail, Into Tree

A pickup truck plowed through a guardrail and then the driver, who may have been intoxicated, police said, damages a deputy’s cruiser while trying to get away.

The crash happened just before midnight in Harrison Township on Wadsworth Road, which has a very sharp curve that drivers don’t always anticipate.

A neighbor told News Center 7 that these types of crashes happen all the time. “Actually, trying to get off the tree, every time someone does that, they throw it in reverse and start boiling the tires off,” Bryan Burnett said.

According to Montgomery County deputies, the driver did not make the curve as he approached it and crashed through a guardrail before slamming into a tree.

A sheriff’s deputy pulled up to the scene just seconds after hearing the crash. However, deputies said the driver of the pickup truck, Randy Ramsey, 52, kept trying to free his vehicle from the crash.

Ramsey was unable to free the truck from the wreckage because his bumper was completely over the metal guardrail, deputies said.

I climbed over the fence and said ‘Hey man, the cops are behind you.’ He (Ramsey) must have heard me because he (deputy) flipped his sirens on, and he finally shut the truck off,” Burnett said.

Burnett said he and a friend heard the crash while working on a car in a garage. He said they heard the brakes squealing before the crash and then laughed when, predictably, the driver tried to get away.

“It’s funny. The guy was not all that hurt. He hit his head, but he was flying, straight flying,” Burnett said.

Ramsey was arrested at the scene, and deputies said they believe he may have been drinking. They booked him in the Montgomery County Jail on charges of OVI and criminal damaging.

Burnett told News Center 7 that four to five times a year, someone takes out the guardrail and heads into the trees.

He hopes that road crews from Harrison Township can get the guardrail fixed soon because he said there is a fire hydrant, a phone junction box and some of his vehicles near the road that are now unprotected without the metal barrier.