East Feliciana sheriff’s deputy struck by vehicle

**smokey703** · 06-20-07, 09:13 PM

By ADVOCATE BAKER-ZACHARY BUREAU

Published: Jun 20, 2007

CLINTON — An East Feliciana Parish sheriff’s deputy was critically injured late Wednesday morning when a speeding car ran through branches of a downed tree north of here and hit his patrol car head on, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The accident, which occurred about 11:20 a.m. on La. 67 near its intersection with La. 432, also sent six occupants of the car to various hospitals, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Maj. Bob King said he and Capt. Mark Maples had been notified that a tree fell across part of La. 67 and blocked the northbound lane. King said he and Maples began directing traffic around the tree, with King on the tree’s south side and Maples on the north. King said he saw a Honda Accord coming toward him in the northbound lane at high speed, but it didn’t stop when he tried to flag it down.

King said he jumped into a ditch at the last second, and the Accord went through the tree’s branches and collided headon with the patrol car, which was parked north of the tree in the northbound lane with the flashing lights on. Just before that happened, King said, Maples had gone to the patrol car to answer a radio call from the Sheriff’s Office and was at the car when the Honda went through the tree.

King said he got out of the ditch and Maples was on the ground screaming that he had been hit. The major said Maples was airlifted to a Baton Rouge hospital with critical injuries to his chest.

The Sheriff’s Office said the woman driving the Honda had a Kansas driver’s license.