A Nicholasville man got more than he bargained for while out for an early morning joyride at the John Nickell Boat Ramp at the end of Ky. 39 at the Kentucky River.
According to the Jessamine County Sheriff’s Office, 21-year-old David T. Senethavilay borrowed a friend’s car, traveled to the boat ramp and began to perform “doughnuts” before crashing into a metal pylon.
“A friend of his who he spent the night with lets him take the car — he’s from Nicholasville — and he was down here doing doughnuts and ended up on one of the pylons,” Sgt. Andy Neyman said. “He spun out of control and ended up on one of the pylons, and he was afraid to walk out of here.”
The crash happened around 5 a.m., and Senethavilay wasn’t discovered until some five hours later when 5th District constable Bobby Sams found him while performing his duties as a member of the Jessamine County road crew.
Neyman said the car, a Mazda RX-8, came to rest with its front end jacked up on a pylon.
Neyman said Senethavilay was not injured, just cold.
Sams said he was making his weekly routine route to the boat ramp when he and his crew discovered the crash around 10 a.m.
“I generally go down there one time a week and two times a week during the summer to pick up the trash and stuff,” Sams said. “I hadn’t done it this week, so I went down there on my weekly trip to clean it up, and as soon as I pulled in, I could see that somebody had been out in the gravel doing doughnuts and stuff. So my guys and I got out of the truck, and we saw some movement up at the other end and saw he got over there in the mud, and he slid in the mud and got caught on the cable and guardrail posts.”
Sams said he had to drive toward town until he received a cell signal to call 911.
“I had them send JSO, and I went back down and put him in the truck so he could warm up because he said he’d been down there several hours,” Sams said.
Sams said the Mazda was not running because most of the front end, including the radiator and battery, was busted up.
Neyman said Senethavilay did not have cell range in the remote area of the county and elected not to walk out of the immediate area to find help.
Sams said Senethavilay was fortunate because Friday is the typical day he visits the boat ramp.
“I decided to do it today because it’s slow,” Sams said.
Alcohol and drugs are not suspected in the crash, Neyman said, but Senethavilay was cited for an expired driver’s license.
