---
title: "Ohio Man Drifts Just-Bought Pontiac G8 Into Pole, Sends Himself and His 2 Kids to Hospital"
description: "The casualties: three hospitalized, one ego bruised, and one rare Pontiac G8 GT gone from this world."
date: "2019-01-11"
modified: "2019-01-11"
authors:
  - name: "James Gilboy"
    job_title: "Contributing Writer"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/james-gilboy"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/25916/ohio-man-drifts-just-bought-pontiac-g8-into-pole-sends-himself-and-his-2-kids-to-hospital"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "Chevy SS"
  - "Drifting"
  - "General Motors"
  - "Holden Commodore"
  - "Idiot Driver"
  - "Ohio"
  - "Pontiac"
---

# Ohio Man Drifts Just-Bought Pontiac G8 Into Pole, Sends Himself and His 2 Kids to Hospital

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2019/01/man-crashes-new-pontiac-g8-doing-donuts-in-empty-parking-lot-131554_1.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

An Ohio father injured himself and his two children during an exuberant display of hooning at the wheel of a new-to-him Pontiac G8 GT.

The unidentified father, somewhere in his forties, had just bought the G8 GT involved in the accident according to [*Dayton Daily News*](<https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local/crash-ends-stunt-with-just-purchased-car-sends-father-and-children-hospitals/RCadqdwqBD4gEYBMVzKaxJ/>), citing the police department of Riverside, Ohio. He reportedly took two children, one of high school age and one younger, out for a drive with him, which turned into a drifting session at a parking lot of a now-closed Kmart.

His activities were seemingly misidentified as doing donuts, despite the description of his driving—"driving in a tight circle at high speed"—more closely fitting [drifting](<https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/23744/this-formula-drift-drone-footage-looks-like-a-forza-motorsport-trailer>) instead. Soon thereafter, the man lost control of his Pontiac, slamming into a support pole for a power line. The extent of the damage to the partially-uprooted pole also suggests high-speed drifting to be the cause of the damage, and not a donut, which is typically performed at low speed.

Police received a report of the accident at around 4:30 pm, and on response discovered the totaled Pontiac and its three injured occupants. The two children sustained non-life threatening injuries and were hospitalized, as was the father, though he reportedly faces a citation for reckless operation of a motor vehicle.

The Pontiac G8 was sold for a brief period of two model years prior to the marque's shuttering. The G8 was a rebadged [Holden Commodore](<https://www.thedrive.com/start-finish/11371/the-new-holden-commodore-v8-supercar-racer-is-the-sexiest-buick-regal-ever>), GM's then flagship sedan in Australia, and as a piece of forbidden fruit was much sought-after by American GM enthusiasts who believed the grass to be greener on the other hemisphere. Production of the G8 GT totaled exactly 22,663 according to [*GM-EFI*](<https://www.gm-efi.com/features/gm-efis-guide-to-the-2008-2009-pontiac-g8/>), meaning this accident makes a rare sports sedan even rarer, but at least poor driving didn't claim an even-rarer G8 GXP, as GM only made 1,824 of those.

We imagine the wrecked Pontiac will be trailered to the nearest junkyard to the following funeral dirge.

> ♫ I wonder if you know

> How they live in Ohio

> If you seen it then you mean it

> Then you know you have to go

> Crash my Pontiac! (Kitaa!) (Drift, Drift, Drift) ♫

> — Teriyaki Boyz

## Author
James is a former staff writer for The Drive. He has changed the conversation around electrification, debunked misinformation online, and become a prominent hunter of what he calls "automotive cryptids."

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/jamesgilboy>)