Car breaks gas line at 10th and Vermont streets

A driver struck and broke a natural gas line on Vermont Street at about 10:20 p.m. Thursday night.

Lawrence Police Capt. Ray Urbanek said the automobile had been parked in the city parking lot on the southwest corner of 10th and Vermont street before the accident.

Police are still figuring out exactly what happened, but Urbanek said that the driver “perhaps hit the gas instead of the brake, jumped the curb, hit the parking meter post and started to climb up a tree.”

The car then flipped on its side and broke a gas line that feeds Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt. Dispatchers reported that the gas line was turned off shortly after the incident. The car didn’t hit the church, but landed about a foot away from it, Urbanek said.

Urbanek said there were two occupants in the car; it is unclear if the driver was a man or a woman. The driver, who suffered minor injuries, was transported to Lawrence Memorial Hospital in a private vehicle.

Police are investigating if alcohol or drugs were involved in the incident.