A football player from Clemson was arrested for careless driving. What we know is as follows:
According to a police report, a Clemson football player was arrested earlier this week on charges of careless driving after he was engaged in an on-campus car collision on February 14 that sent all three of the parties involved to the hospital. According to a Clemson University Police Department report obtained by The State on Friday through a public records request, Noble Johnson, a redshirt freshman wide receiver on the Tigers football team, was traveling at approximately 71 mph in a 35 mph zone at an intersection near Clemson’s campus before hitting another car that had failed to yield while making a left turn.
The report states that the accident occurred at the intersection of Cherry Road and Perimeter Road on February 14 at roughly 6:12 a.m. The distance between that intersection and Clemson’s football facilities is about one mile.
The CUPD report stated that Johnson, the non-student driver of the second automobile, and the non-student passenger in the second car were all sent to Greenville Memorial Hospital as a consequence of their injuries sustained in the accident. The driver of the second car, a woman whose name is withheld in the report, was cited for two offenses, according to CUPD, in addition to Johnson’s arrest on a misdemeanor reckless driving charge related to the accident: failing to yield right of way (left turns) and driving without a license (first offense).
Johnson is still a part of the program and his status with the team has not altered as a result of the accident, a team spokeswoman told The State on Friday.
The spokesperson postponed answering questions from the media on Johnson’s circumstances, particularly his present state of injury, until coach Dabo Swinney speaks to them on Wednesday, the first day of Clemson’s spring practice in 2024. It was unclear at first how the two other people involved fared in terms of injuries.
The other driver was turning left from Perimeter Road onto Cherry Road at 15 mph in a 2006 Chevy Colorado truck, and Johnson was traveling west on Perimeter Road at an estimated speed of 71 mph in a 2022 Honda Civic on the morning of the accident, according to a South Carolina traffic collision report form that was filled out by CUPD in the days following the incident and attached to the police report. The other driver “failed to yield” to Johnson before making the left turn, according to the traffic crash report, and Johnson’s car’s speed “contributed to the collision.” According to the report, Johnson’s vehicle hit the other vehicle in the passenger side front, and the other vehicle “then flipped onto its side,” and Johnson’s vehicle “turned and collided with the nearby light pole.”
After reviewing video footage from the incident and conducting a speed calculation, CUPD issued a reckless driving arrest warrant for Johnson on Feb. 19, five days after the incident. An officer wrote when he contacted Johnson regarding that warrant, “Johnson informed me that he was just discharged from the hospital.” Johnson cooperated with CUPD officers and turned himself in that day around 12:17 p.m. on Feb. 19, according to the report. According to online court filings in Pickens County, where Clemson is located, Johnson posted a $440 bond later that afternoon. Johnson’s case is listed as criminal and being heard in Clemson University Municipal Court, according to Pickens County court filings, and he has an initial court appearance on March 13
