Traffic was tied up for more than one hour on Wooster Street this morning around 7 a.m. as crews cleared a car crash from the intersection of 17th and Wooster streets.
Twenty one-year-old Rachel Lee Harvell was fleeing from the Chick-fil-A parking lot on Oleander Drive when she slammed her Nissan Sentra into a pole and spun into the side of a building at 703 S. 18th St.
Witnesses told police that around 6:45 a.m. Harvell hit a white Honda Accord idling in the Chick-fil-A parking lot then left the scene. Sixty five-year-old Stuart Michael Lopes, the driver of the Honda, pursued Harvell down Oleander Drive at speeds exceeding 75 mph. Harvell lost control of her vehicle at the intersection of 17th and Wooster streets. causing her to crash into the traffic camera pole and building.
According to a press release from the Wilmington Police Department, Harvell was transported to New Hanover Regional Medical Center for minor injuries, but should be released later today. Her Nissan Sentra was totaled. Charges on Harvell are pending with the outcome of the investigation.
Lopes suffered no injuries and was charged with careless and reckless driving.
