Teen Takes Car Without Permission For Newport Joyride, Crashes

An 18-year-old Newport man is facing charges of felony driving without consent of the owner and driving without a license after police say he took a car belonging to his father’s girlfriend without permission for a high-speed joyride and then crashed it.

Police said Terrence Chalvier Simmons Jr., of 103 Gibbs Ave., Newport, was driving more than 50 mph on Ocean Avenue near Harrison Avenue when he lost control of the black Nissan sedan and ended up in the brush on the side of the road.

Police arrived at the scene at around 9:30 a.m. and saw that the front bumper of the car had been ripped off and was near the entrance of King’s Beach.

The passenger side of the car had apparently made contact with a large rock that sits at the intersection of Ocean Avenue and the entrance to King’s Beach.

Simmons “admitted to being out for a ‘joyride’ and had been traveling at a high rate of speed,” a police report stated.

A man who had stopped at the scene told police that he saw Simmons driving aggressively just a few moments before the crash.

Police said the witness said he was driving along at around 25 mph when Simmons pulled up right behind him at a high rate of speed and tried to pass on a curve in the road where passing is not allowed.

There was an oncoming car, so Simmons had to jerk back into his lane and then proceeded to pass at a high rate of speed when the oncoming car had driven by.

About a quarter-mile later, the witness told police he saw Simmon’s car on the side of the road in the brush and Simmons was outside of the vehicle.

Police said Simmons initially told them that the car was his father’s, but the registration indicated that it belong to a woman with a different name. When questioned again, Simmons said the car belonged to his father’s girlfriend.

Police contacted the owner and she said that she was out of state with Simmons’ father to attend a funeral. She said he did not have permission to take the car.

Police then learned that Simmons didn’t have a drivers license and he was taken into custody without incident.

Surety bail on the new charges was set at $5,000 but Simmons was ordered held without bail as a probation violator.