Driver to help pay for wall

By MICHAEL MARESH

Staff writer

No charges are planned against an 18-year-old Marion resident who crashed his pickup into a limestone wall Halloween night and then fled. His insurance, however, will help pay for repairs.

Damien Michael Thouvenell was exceeding the speed limit when his eastbound pickup hit a slick patch of smashed hedge apples that had been deposited on the street as a Halloween prank, according to an accident report released Friday.

Thouvenell’s 2008 Chevrolet C2500 slid onto a Main St. sidewalk east of Locust St. at 12:30 a.m. Nov. 1. Its rear hitch hit the wall first. The pickup then swung around and hit the wall again, this time with the front of its driver’s side.

Thouvenell drove off with passenger Blair L. Thompson, 17, later telling police that he fled because he was afraid of getting in trouble.

No injuries were reported, and no dollar estimate of the damage was released.

Witnesses identified Thouvenell, Police Chief Aaron Slater said Saturday. Slater said he lectured Thouvenell about not leaving the scene of an accident but did not plan to issue any tickets.

Masons worked all last week removing portions of the damaged wall, but some of the damage being repaired pre-dated the wreck.

Middle School Principal Kelsey Metro said that the wall was old and that restoration was planned before the wreck.

Superintendent Justin Wasmuth said the district would not pay for the part of the wall damaged by Thouvenell’s pickup.

“It was decided that auto insurance would pay for the fix of the wall that was hit,” Wasmuth said. “We were already going to fix the western portion of the wall because it was buckling.”

The school district will pay for restoring that part of the wall.