A Toyota Camry driven by Jamie Phipps ended up in a ditch on Harding Place after an incident at a Nashville Mobil station, Metro Nashville police say. An arrest affidavit, as described in WSMV’s report, says a man who had stopped to help Phipps was struck by the car.
Officers were sent to the area of Harding Place and Traveler’s Inn Drive after emergency texts reported a driver asleep at the wheel, according to WSMV. The station reported that a man told officers he had found Phipps passed out behind the wheel of his Toyota Camry at the Mobil station and tried to help. The affidavit states that Phipps woke up, put the car in drive, struck the man and drove away.
The man showed officers road-rash injuries on his stomach, WSMV reported. Police say Phipps crashed the Camry into a ditch about 50 yards down Harding Place, where officers took him into custody.
Phipps’s account to officers
WSMV reported that, according to the affidavit, Phipps told officers he had relapsed and taken fentanyl before the incident. He said his last memory before waking up in the ditch was driving to the gas station because he needed something to drink, and reportedly told officers he did not remember striking the man.
What county overdose figures show
A Metro Public Health Department report says Davidson County overdose deaths rose from 264 in 2018 to 513 in 2024, after peaking at 609 in 2023. Those figures count overdose fatalities; they are not a measure of impaired-driving incidents and do not establish what happened in this case.
Phipps was arrested without incident and booked for vehicular assault, the outlet reported. His bond was set at $20,000.
