Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy and K9 in Hospital After Being Struck by a Wrong-Way Driver
A wrong-way driver struck a Bexar County deputy and his K9 around noon on the 26th of May. The collision happened on the 6800 block of Old Pearsall Road close to Covel Road in San Antonio.
The Bexar County Sheriff, Javier Salazar, made a statement at around 1 p.m. to provide details of the incident. A deputy for the department had seen a black sedan driving recklessly and heading the wrong way down Old Pearsall Road close to Ray Ellison. The deputy tried pulling the vehicle over but lost track of it as it sped off.
Another deputy went further down Old Pearsall Road in the direction the sedan was seen traveling and was putting down spike strips on the road when the driver of the sedan tried to swerve around the strips and instead hit the deputy’s Chevy Tahoe. The impact knocked the Tahoe into the deputy, which rendered him unconscious.
A police K9 was inside the Tahoe at the time of the crash but the dog was uninjured. The K9 and the deputy were taken to local hospitals for evaluation. As of the time of Salazar’s statement, neither appeared to have life-threatening injuries but they were still being assessed.
The two suspects, an 18-year-old and a 15-year-old fled into a cornfield on foot after the crash. They were apprehended about half an hour later near a home. One of the suspects was found on the porch of a home.
A stretch of Old Pearsall Road was closed down in both directions. Nearby schools in the Southwest Independent School District were put on a “secure” status after the crash.
The suspects face potential charges of evading arrest, assault on a peace officer, fleeing the scene of a crash, and others, depending on how badly the deputy and K9 were hurt.
Wrong Way Drivers
Most wrong-way drivers caught are intoxicated at the time of their arrest. A smaller subset are found driving the wrong way because of medical issues or unknown causes.
Sadly, wrong-way collisions frequently result in serious injuries or death. This is much like other cases with intoxicated drivers. They tend to speed, drive recklessly, and are more likely to hit another vehicle head-on, which can cause more severe injuries.
While you can’t control whether someone else drives the wrong way, you can keep yourself safer by following these tips:
- Avoid driving right as bars are closing in your area
- Watch out when you’re near freeway offramps or intersections
- Call in and report any wrong-way drivers you see and be sure to note the location and the direction they’re traveling
- Keep aware of other drivers on the road
- If you see a driver going the wrong way, get out of their way as fast as you safely can
