INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A deputy and a man under arrest were hurt early Sunday after a driver ran a flashing red light, slammed into the officer’s patrol vehicle and kept driving, officials said.
The deputy and man in the back of the patrol vehicle were taken by ambulance to Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital with minor injuries, Indian River County sheriff’s spokesman Maj. Eric Flowers said. Both were released from the hospital Sunday morning.
Monday, deputies were still searching for the driver of the white Dodge flatbed utility truck that hit the patrol car.
Deputy Andrew Ward had arrested 37-year-old Jerry Shelley, of Vero Beach, on unrelated charges just before 2 a.m. Sunday, officials said. Ward was driving Shelley to the Indian River County Jail when the truck struck the front driver’s side of Ward’s patrol vehicle at the intersection of 10th Avenue and 21st Street, deputies said.
The impact totaled the deputy’s vehicle, causing most of the front to be mangled.
The truck continued driving northbound on 10th Avenue toward 23rd Street. The sheriff’s vehicle’s dashboard camera caught a glimpse of the truck just before impact.
The white vehicle has a black front bumper and black fenders, authorities said. The truck also has a headache rack – a rack that protects passengers from cargo in the truck bed.
The truck will have damage to its passenger side.
Anyone with information about the driver or truck should contact sheriff’s Traffic Homicide Investigator Cpl. Ryan Eggers at reggers@ircsheriff.org. Residents can also call sheriff’s public safety dispatch at 772-569-6700.
Photos contributed by Indian River County Sheriff’s Office
