Park Forest, IL–(ENEWSPF)– Police charged a Harvey man with multiple charges after an accident occurred on South Orchard Drive in the early morning of Saturday, June 6. According to police, when they arrived at the accident scene, the driver was gone and his passenger was lying on the ground beside the vehicle with glass and blood in his eyes.
On June 6, just before 5:00 a.m., police responded to the first block of South Orchard Drive to investigate a vehicle accident that was called in by one of the occupants of the vehicle. The caller stated that he had glass and blood in his eyes and did not know where he was.
Officers responded to the scene and found a 24-year-old man lying on the grass by the passenger side of a red Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. The vehicle had no license plates and had crashed into a fire hydrant on the West side of Orchard Drive. The man stated that he had been a passenger in the seat of the vehicle and was getting a ride home from his friend when he fell asleep. He said he woke up and found himself lying outside the vehicle with glass and blood in his eyes and pain in his legs, at which time he called 911.
Police observed that the vehicle had struck the fire hydrant on the parkway. The front end of the vehicle was wrapped around the fire hydrant with extensive damage to the front end and hood. The vehicle was also missing its license plates and the VIN number on the dashboard had been covered up, according to police.
Police received a call from dispatch of a suspicious person in the first block of Cherry Street. The caller stated that he observed a man wearing a blue jacket and black pants running through his front yard dropping miscellaneous papers. When police arrived, they found a state ID card and a FOID card bearing the name of Trunell Hodges, 15817 Myrtle Ave., Harvey, according to police. They also found an Illinois registration identification card for the Oldsmobile vehicle with matching VIN registered in the name of Trunell Hodges, according to police.
Officer Habecker spoke to Trunell Hodges by telephone on June 10. According to police, Mr. Hodges stated that he was the one who was driving the car when it crashed, and that he wished to turn himself in. Hodges came to the Park Forest Police Department on June 11. According to police, he related that he was driving southbound on Orchard Drive when the vehicle crashed. He stated that he did not know what happened or why he crashed there, according to police. He said he attempted to find the police station but did not know where it was, according to police.
Trunell M. Hodges, 21, 15817 Myrtle Ave., Harvey, was arrested on June 11 and charged with leaving the scene of a property damage accident, failure to render aid, and issued citations charging failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, no valid registration, no insurance, failure to report an accident, and unsafe equipment.
