An Ottawa man is facing careless driving charges after failing to navigate the corner at Chapel, Ferguson and Main Streets. Instead, he slammed into the Picton’s war memorial cenotaph.

Just after 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 10, Prince Edward OPP officers received a report of a collision in downtown Picton. Officers responded alongside Hastings Quinte Paramedic Services and Prince Edward County Fire and Rescue. A vehicle had struck the monument.

Witnesses at the scene told the Gazette the car was travelling on Chapel and making a turn onto either Main or Ferguson when instead it accelerated and drove into the parkette, striking the cenotaph and coming to rest with a number of the vehicle’s air bags deployed.

There are tire marks on the cenotaph and some damage to the corner of the memorial stone. Pieces of the car’s bumper were littered about the sitting area.

The same witnesses said people sitting at the park benches near the cenotaph were able to scatter out of the way in time. One person sitting at the parkette sustained minor injures in the accident when they hurriedly retreated out of the path of the oncoming vehicle.

A 29-year-old driver from Ottawa was charged with one count of careless driving.

-Staff