Police are searching for the driver of a Honda Civic who they say wedged the vehicle between a telephone pole and a cluster of trees on Ithaca’s West Hill early Saturday morning before fleeing the car with a passenger.
Officers responded to the 600 block of Hector St. near Vinegar Hill Rd. at about 1:45 a.m. and found the silver sedan about 10 feet off of the road with its windshield partly smashed and no one inside.
Police discovered narcotics in the car, said Lt. Jeffrey Colson, who cautioned that the drugs had not yet been tested at the station. He added that officers also saw blood in the vehicle, meaning at least one of the occupants could be injured.
Tom Cannon was trying to fall asleep at his girlfriend’s house when he heard the crash about 25 feet from their Hector St. home and called 9-1-1. He said he heard a car accelerating, the brief sound of tires screeching, and then two male voices leaving the vehicle before police arrived.
Officers searched the wooded area of West Hill with flashlights but did not take anyone into custody.