We appreciate the largely thankless and often dangerous work law enforcement performs daily for communities across the nation. While there are many good officers out there, unfortunately some aren’t so great, are incompetent, or sometimes just plain drop the ball. We believe this case out of Oklahoma where two deputies didn’t check up on a 16-year-old boy who was trapped in a crashed Dodge Charger is shocking because it represents exactly the opposite instinct officers of the law should have.
Watch a fleeing Dodge Charger get peeled like an orange.
In shocking dashcam footage, we see everything unfold. The teenage driver was pulled over by a Canadian County deputy for not having a tag on his vehicle, which had just been purchased by his parents. State law allows for a newly purchased car to be driven without a tag for a certain number of days, so when the driver presented the proper paperwork the deputy said he was only giving the boy a verbal warning.
That’s when a drowsy driver behind the wheel of a pickup pulling a trailer slams into the driver’s side of the Charger, flipping the deputy and pushing the Dodge all the way to the sound wall. Dazed and seriously hurt, the deputy takes over a minute to come to and radio for help.
When a trooper arrives on scene about two minutes after the crash, the deputy asks if the two drivers involved in the crash are okay. That’s when the trooper plainly says, “I don’t care about them.” He follows that declaration up by not bothering to check on those drivers.
A second trooper arrives not too long after and seems to have the same attitude. We’ve seen cops risk their lives to pull someone out of a burning vehicle after that person led them on a high-speed pursuit, so this behavior is really weird for anyone in law enforcement. And we think it’s completely out of line.
What those troopers didn’t know and apparently didn’t care about was the teenage driver in the Charger suffered serious head injuries, was unconscious and going into seizures. It took a local police officer arriving on scene before someone finally went to check on the boy, almost eight and a half minutes after the crash.
In that amount of time, the teenager easily could have died. And yet those two troopers couldn’t be bothered to just check up on him? The Charger was clearly heavily damaged, surely they knew it was likely the driver was injured and trapped.
Fortunately, the 16-year-old survived and is recovering from his serious injuries. But the inaction of the troopers could have easily been the death of him.
“To Protect And Serve” is often featured on police vehicles as a reminder to officers as much as the community of their duty to help those in need. But in this case one could say it was more “To Protect And Serve Ourselves.” With the video footage what unfolded seems pretty clear and it’s utterly disgusting.
The parents of this teen aren’t just your average Oklahoma citizens. His father is Greg Treat, an Oklahoma State Senator and his mother is Maressa Treat, Oklahoma County Clerk. While it’s undoubtedly true his parents’ positions are helping to shine a light on this case, we hope it leads to some good. Officers of the law should never conduct themselves this way, although we know realistically it happens all too often.
Greg Treat is working to pass legislation which will reform the process for temporary registration of vehicles in Oklahoma. Perhaps if Texas’ revolutionary step towards issuing permanent tags immediately is a success, other states will soon follow.
Images via KFOR/YouTube
Follow The Auto Wire on Google News.
+ There are no comments
Add yours