By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
A still-unidentified Atmore Police Department officer got a scare but came out unscathed when his patrol car slid into a ditch and onto its side around 2:30 p.m., last Wednesday, February 28.
According to a press release issued the night of the single-vehicle accident, the officer was responding to a traffic crash with injuries on Martin Luther King between the railroad tracks and Ridgley Street.
“The officer was attempting to position his patrol car behind the vehicles involved in the traffic crash,” the release reads. “The officer was unsuccessful in that endeavor and inadvertently left the roadway.”
A large portion of the sand and clay beneath the grassy roadside just beyond the railroad crossing apparently gave way, and the vehicle began to slide to the right.
“When the officer’s marked patrol unit left the roadway, the passenger side of the vehicle slowly slid into the ditch,” police officials reported. “The officer and his patrol unit slowly rolled onto the passenger side of the vehicle before coming to a rest.”
The officer wasn’t injured, and the extent of the damage to the patrol car has not yet been determined.
Police said some of the people involved in the call that sent the officer to the site — a rear-end collision — actually helped the officer get out of the overturned vehicle.
“The drivers involved in the traffic crash the officer was responding to were not seriously injured and offered assistance to the officer as he needed assistance exiting his patrol unit,” the press release reads.
The initial accident, involving two drivers from Atmore, resulted in two people being taken to Atmore Community Hospital for treatment, though neither’s injuries were believed to be life-threatening.
APD reports show that the driver of a 2011 Jeep Liberty, 42-year-old James Mims of Atmore, was distracted as his vehicle approached a 2020 Hyundai Sonata that had stopped to make a turn.
The Jeep ran into the rear of the Hyundai, which was driven by Eloise Dirden, 70, also of Atmore. Dirden and an unidentified passenger in her vehicle both suffered injuries and were taken by MedStar ambulance to the local hospital, where they were reportedly treated and released.
Neither vehicle sustained enough damage that it had to be towed.