By Jennie Rees
Award-winning videographer John Hennegan and three others were hospitalized overnight and trainer Dale Romans was treated for rib injuries from a three-car accident several blocks from Churchill Downs about three hours after Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby.
Romans had finished seventh in the Derby with Albaugh Family Stables' Brody's Cause (Giant's Causeway).
Hennegan sustained fractured ribs and a bruised lung, Romans said. He said he had bruised ribs and pulled muscles in the rib cage.
“Just really sore,” Romans said Sunday afternoon. “We'll all be OK,” he said, adding of his late-model Hyundai Equus, “The car came through. It took care of us. I had my seat belt on. I swear I have it on one out of about every 10 times. But I put it on, and I will never drive without my seatbelt on again, because that's really what saved us. It was very scary, very violent.”
Romans said he was driving five house guests to his home when he was unable to avoid hitting an SUV that blew through a stop sign from a side street. Romans said he was driving down Southern Parkway, a four-lane major artery in Louisville's South End, while the SUV pulled out from a side street (Evelyn Ave.) about 9:30-10 p.m. Romans' sedan then was struck on the passenger side by a pickup truck and careened onto the curb on Evelyn, the trainer said.
Romans said he had dropped off Jason Loutsch, who manages Dennis Albaugh's bloodstock interests for his father-in-law, at the Galt House Hotel and on his way back home he picked up Hennegan and four other friends at the Veterans of Foreign Wars' post near Churchill, where they were waiting until Romans had finished working following the Derby.
According to Romans and former jockey Tammy Fox, his life partner and exercise rider, Hennegan and three others were transported by ambulance to University Hospital downtown. Fox drove Romans to Jewish Hospital, where his close friend and client Dr. Raymond Shea, a noted orthopedic surgeon, is affiliated. The fifth friend did not go to the hospital, Romans said.
Fox, who was home at the time of the accident, said they didn't know anything about the passengers in the SUV. The driver of the truck and other witnesses stopped to tell the police what happened, Romans said.
“Everybody saw what happened,” Fox said. “That car just shot out of nowhere. It happened that quick. Dale said he got hit twice. Boom, boom and the next thing he knew it just turned black. Well the black was the airbag [deploying]. They were lucky. It could have been a lot worse.”
Fox said Hennegan was expected to be released from the hospital Sunday. Hennegan, with his brother Brad, produced the Eclipse Award-winning documentary First Saturday in May based on the 2006 Kentucky Derby.
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