A man is in custody after police say his vehicle slammed into a house near Pine Street and Harvard Avenue in Tulsa around noon Wednesday. No one was inside the home at the time, but a woman riding in the car was taken to the hospital following the crash.
Officers took the driver into custody after the crash, according to News On 6, which reported the incident. Police said the man told officers the vehicle's brakes had failed, but investigators reported finding clear evidence of braking before the car struck the house. The station has not released the driver's name.
Conflicting Accounts Over What Caused the Crash
The gap between the driver's explanation and what police say they found at the scene remains the central question in the case. The driver's claim that his brakes were not working stands in contrast to the physical evidence of braking that police reported observing, and it is not yet clear how officers will reconcile the two accounts. No further details on the man's identity, the passenger's condition, or any charges have been released.
Police said no one was inside the house when the vehicle hit it, so no one inside was hurt. The woman passenger was taken to a hospital after the crash, though her condition has not been disclosed.
A Familiar Intersection for Tulsa Crash Reports
Pine Street and Harvard Avenue has turned up in other crash reports over the years, though those incidents are unrelated to Wednesday's wreck. In 2023, a vehicle crashed into a building near North Harvard Avenue and East Pine Street, according to a separate News On 6 report. Years earlier, on Dec. 31, 2019, a driver fleeing a Tulsa police chase crashed into a building near Pine and North Harvard and ran from the vehicle, per KTUL.
Another crash near the same intersection involved a driver officers said was allegedly going the wrong way before colliding head-on with another car, leaving a man hospitalized, according to a separate News On 6 account. And in April, a News On 6 search-result snippet noted that Tulsa police arrested a woman on suspicion of driving under the influence after a crash near Pine Street and Harvard Avenue early one Tuesday morning.
