Playing in the flowers

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A Mount Pleasant freshman might label the seven days before classes begin,
un-welcome week, after he was involved in a two-car accident Tuesday.

Justin C. Brickner, 19, was driving his green Ford Taurus east on Bellows
Street about 4:15 p.m. when a red Nissan Sentra ran the stop sign southbound
on Washington Street, police said.

“I was going and all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I saw him,”
Brickner said. “I thought he was going to drill me.”

Brickner stopped, but the back end of the Nissan scraped against his fender
and spun out of control. The driver of the Nissan, James R. Bennett, leaped
the curb and crashed into the flower bed in front of Larzelere Hall.

No one was injured.

“I just got him enough to spin him,” Brickner said. “He must have
been flying.”

Bennett, 25, from Boston, said he is new to the area and was unfamiliar
with the streets in the student neighborhood. He is staying with friends
while he signs up for classes in CMU’s recreation program.

Mount Pleasant Police officer David VanDyke issued Bennett a citation
for failing to stop at a stop sign. He said he could not determine if Bennett
was speeding.

“The guy that was at fault got the worst end of the deal,” he said.