Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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July 16, 2011

Family evacuated when car crashes into gas meter

By GREG JORDAN Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — A Mercer County deputy had to wake up and evacuate a family from their home Friday morning after car backed through a fence, into the yard and broke a gas meter.

Ed Elmadolar of 229 Hew Hope Road said that he, his wife and their grandchildren were still asleep when Deputy A.M. Ballard knocked at their door and told them they needed to leave.

“He told us to get out,” Elmadolar said later, adding that nobody in the house had heard the crash.

The incident happened 6 a.m. when a two-door Chevrolet Cavalier driven by Eugenia Willard, 35, of Coal City backed out of a parking lot across from the Elmadolar home, went over a steel pipe and stone fence, went into the side yard, broke a privacy fence and broke a gas meter, Ballard said.

Willard was issued a citation for driving under the influence, Ballard said. There was also suspected drug use, he added.

“She refused two of three field sobriety tests and failed the one she did take,” he said.

Willard was transported to Princeton Community Hospital for evaluation. The Princeton Rescue Squad and the East River Volunteer Fire Department were also dispatched to the scene. An employee with Mountaineer Gas Company shut off the gas. No injuries were reported.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

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