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Sheriff’s Office vehicle heavily damaged in Friday morning crash
A Putnam County Sheriff’s Office vehicle is destroyed, but the deputy walked away following a three-vehicle crash Friday morning.
Deputy Randy Patrick suffered only minor injuries in the North Jackson Street (U.S. 231) crash that collected his vehicle, while the other two drivers were uninjured.
The incident began shortly before 9 a.m. with Rodney Humphreys, 58, Rockville, northbound in a 2012 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 and Edward N. Webb, 61, Haubstadt, also northbound in a 2007 semi tractor registered to S & S Carriers of Evansville.
According to Greencastle Police Officer Nick Eastham, Humphreys was preparing to turn left onto Frazier Street when he missed his turn. Instead, he chose to continue northbound and attempt a right turn into the Putnam County Museum parking lot in order to turn around.
However, Webb had already pulled onto the shoulder to pass the pickup on the right. When Humphreys turned, it was directly into Webb’s path, causing the semi to strike the right side of the truck.
The momentum of the two vehicles, along with Webb’s 20,000-pound load, carried the vehicles north and west, into the southbound lane, where the semi collided with the driver’s side door area of the 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe that Patrick was driving southbound on Jackson Street.
All three vehicles continued off the west side of the road and pushed Patrick’s vehicle up an embankment, where it was ultimately pinned between the semi’s grille and a tree.
Patrick was briefly trapped in the vehicle, but ultimately freed by Greencastle firefighters. GFD Assistant Chief Rob Frank noted that brand new extrication equipment was used for the first time for the extrication.
“We just trained on these new tools, and they worked perfectly,” Frank said. “We trained on them Tuesday and put them in service on Wednesday, then used them today.
“These guys did all the work,” Frank added, crediting the firefighters on duty.
Despite the entrapment, Patrick suffered only minor cuts on his forehead and arm in the crash.
Besides the two city emergency departments, Patrick’s fellow deputies from the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, as well as Putnam County EMS, DePauw Police Department and Jerry’s Wrecker Service all responded to the crash.
Additionally, Conservation Officer Patrick Labhart was the first responder on the scene besides Patrick, as he was also southbound and witnessed the crash.
Traffic in the area was shut down for nearly an hour as crews worked first to free Patrick and then to clear the scene.
Even after the road opened to a single lane of traffic, work continued to clear the vehicles.