Modesto crash involving sheriff’s vehicle tied to concern over deputy’s whereabouts
An 8-year-old boy was taken by helicopter to Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera after a Stanislaus County Sheriff’s deputy responding to a call crashed into the vehicle he was riding in.
The crash happened at Orangeburg and College avenues in Modesto at about 9:43 p.m. Sunday.
Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Sharon Bear said the deputy was driving Code 3, with lights and sirens on, south on College in his patrol vehicle when he crashed into a Chevrolet that was traveling west on Orangeburg. The Chevrolet then hit a Ford that was traveling east.
The man driving the Chevrolet suffered minor injuries but his 8-year-old passenger had moderate injuries, including a head injury, according to radio traffic of the incident. He was taken by helicopter to Madera for precautionary reasons, Bear said.
The driver of the Ford was also taken to the hospital with injuries that were not life threatening and so was the deputy, who suffered a laceration to his head, according to Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Sgt. Luke Schwartz.
Bear said officers are still investigating who had the red light and how fast the deputy was traveling.
Schwartz said the deputy was responding Code 3 to check on a fellow deputy who was not answering his radio after repeated attempts by a dispatcher to raise him.
He said that deputy was on a call in Turlock “interviewing a possible victim of sexual assault” and the dispatcher was “doing a routine security check” on the deputy.
He “had the volume to his portable radio down low while they were speaking about the sensitive subject matter,” Schwartz said.
Radio traffic during the approximately eight minutes the deputy could not be reached conveyed an increasing level of concern for his welfare.
Several deputies tried calling him, including on his personnel cell phone, but got voicemail.
Another deputy got on the radio and said, “Copy. Start as many people as possible to that. I’ll be en route.”
Multiple deputies were dispatched to his location and Turlock Police were asked to assist.
A Turlock Police officer was the first to arrive on scene and found the deputy’s patrol vehicle unoccupied. “The lights are on; it seems like he was in here and ran out,” the officer said.
More officers and deputies began arriving at the scene. They started to set up a perimeter and called for a K9 to search for him just before he was found safe at the residence he’d gone to as part of his investigation.
This story was originally published July 26, 2021 at 9:31 AM.
