Police: Man fled accident scene to avoid having an accident

[Foxy Brown]

A 29-year-old Gainesville man told police he left the scene of an accident Tuesday because he was afraid he was going to have an accident of another kind, officers reported.

Barnard W. Cato III was charged with DUI, hit and run and leaving the scene of an accident involving injury, a third-degree felony, after his car crashed into another vehicle and newspaper boxes at about 7:15 a.m. on Tuesday on the 2600 block of Northwest 13th Street.

According to a Gainesville Police Department report, Cato left the scene and ran toward the nearby Walmart store, where he was found a few minutes later.

Officer Stephanie Pridgen wrote that Cato had a “strong odor of alcohol emanating from his breath and clothing” and that his eyes were “bloodshot and watery.”

He declined to give a breathalyzer test, according to the report, adding, “I didn’t realize I hit somebody. (I) pulled into the next stop ... I had the runs, I had to go.”