‘Never seen a car tore up that bad.’ Video shows horrific crash on Pio Nono Avenue
A man is in critical condition after his car ripped apart in a south Macon crash early Monday.
Just before 3:14 a.m., the driver of a 1998 Lincoln Town Car, believed to be traveling north at a high rate of speed, left Pio Nono Avenue near the split with Broadway and Houston Avenue, according to a news release from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.
The white car, driven by 28-year-old Antonio Lowe Jr., started to slide on the grass and clipped a utility pole on the side of a vacant convenience store at the fork.
The back bumper came off and the car spun into the All Star Tire sign at 4770 Pio Nono Avenue, where the car’s engine and front end ripped off and landed near the highway. The driver’s side of the car wrapped around the pole.
“I’ve never seen a car tore up that bad,” All Star Tire’s Craig Palmer said as he waited for the wrecker service to remove the wreckage scattered about his parking lot.
As the car skidded across Palmer’s parking lot, parts of it flew off and hit the front windows of the building, cracking two and shattering a third. Bits of glass littered the whole showroom of the business.
At least two vehicles parked out front also were damaged by flying debris and one of the Lincoln’s tires rolled up Pio Nono and ended up in front of a business two doors down.
The passenger compartment and back end of the Town Car were crumpled around the sign pole.
First responders say Lowe was partially ejected. It took firefighters about 15 minutes to free him from the mangled car, but Lowe was alive when he left the scene.
Bibb County sheriff’s officials said Lowe’s condition was still listed as critical Monday afternoon. He was undergoing treatment at Medical Center, Navicent Health.
The right lane of the highway was closed for nearly four hours as the fatality investigator for the Bibb County sheriff’s office documented the scene due to the serious injuries suffered in the crash.
Palmer said this isn’t the first time his business has been hit.
A man died several years ago when he drove through the left side of the business and in December of 2012 a Lincoln Navigator went airborne and rolled several times before crashing into some go carts displayed in the parking lot.
“The road’s not designed for today’s traffic,” Palmer said.
Decades ago, Broadway and Houston Avenue were gateways to downtown and are more of a straight shot down the highway, but taking Pio Nono requires drivers to veer left.
“As long as people are trying to negotiate that road too fast and go to the left when they’re running 60, 70 and 80 miles per hour, you just can’t make it,” Palmer said. “And with the ditches and the culverts that are beside the road you’re going to have wrecks out here.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2019 at 7:27 AM.
