I just spoke to Larry Warren, the man who was driving Terrence Jones and Stacey Poole last night when a drunk driver hit them on their way back to Wildcat Lodge from a concert at Forte.
Larry is childhood friends with Terrence Jones and is a sophomore at UK and majors in kinesiology.
I asked Larry to tell me about what happened earlier before the trip to Forte.
“We had been working out at the Craft Center yesterday evening and then we went back to the Lodge and showered after workout.” Warren said. “We left around 11:15 to go to Forte.”
He also told me about what went on at Forte after they got there.
“We payed $15 to get in to go and watch V.I.C. and Wes Grams.”
I asked if they drank any alcohol while they were there.
“All we did was talk to friends, and we had bottled water.” Warren then added, “None of us drank any alcohol at all.”
The three stayed a couple of hours and then decided to head back to the Lodge. They didn’t make it very far though.
“As we were pulling out of the parking lot a car came out of Hanover Street and they swerved into our lane and I had a decision to make to either hit them head on or try to miss them.”
Warren decided to try and miss them and the driver, later to be arrested for DUI, hit them in the passenger side of their vehicle.
“They hit me on the passenger side, Terrence Jones was sitting in the front seat and Stacey was sitting in the backseat on the same side.”
“We got out of the car and I checked on Terrence and Stacey and a pedestrian checked on the other driver.”
When I asked him what went on from there it sounded like they did what anyone normally would do after being in a car wreck.
“We were all just talking checking on how each other was, and we were frustrated that the accident happened.”
I then asked Larry what made Terrence decide to leave the scene after the wreck.
“I just told him with the media being here we thought it was a good idea for him to leave so it wouldn’t blow up into something that it wasn’t, actually what it blew up into anyway.”
I told him that one news source was reporting that Terrence looked intoxicated after the collision and had anyone been drinking that evening.
“We weren’t under the influence of anything, we came from working out to watch a concert and then we were on our way home and a car accident changed everything.”
My last question to Larry, seeing how the media has blown up about Terrence leaving the scene, if they would have done things differently.
“At the time I thought it was the best decision to stay out of the media, but we still planned on taking Terrence to the hospital and I know that he didn’t think he was breaking any laws by leaving the accident.”
After speaking to Larry Warren, I really believe that no one had been drinking and this was just a bad case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Also, let’s not forget, this was all caused by someone drinking and driving and putting other people’s lives in danger.
