A member of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office clocked a vehicle traveling 95 mph eastbound on Indiana 46 around 10:57 p.m. Thursday night, and began to pursue the vehicle. The pursuit lasted for 60 seconds before the driver lost control, and hit another vehicle head on. The speeding vehicle immediately caught fire.
Deputies were able to remove the driver of the pursued vehicle, and the driver who was hit head on in another vehicle, and they were taken to hospitals with injuries. Deputies believe the driver of the speeding vehicle was impaired.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office released the following to the Bloomingtonian Friday:
“At 10:57 PM Deputy Walls attempted a traffic stop on a Buick LaCrosse headed eastbound on State Road 46 from Smith Pike clocked on RADAR at 95 miles per hour. Deputy Walls initiated his emergency lights and siren attempting to stop the vehicle but the vehicle disregarded him and continued driving at the same high speeds as before. After passing Curry Pike, still eastbound on State Road 46 the suspect lost control and crossed over the grass median before striking a westbound Acura ILX head-on. The suspect vehicle immediately caught fire, however Deputy Walls immediately began efforts to remove the entrapped driver. The driver of the other vehicle was also entrapped and Deputy Windsor arrived at the scene and promptly started working on getting her out and away from the fire. Both drivers were removed from their vehicles to safety.
From the time Deputy Walls called out “failure to yield” on the radio to the time of the collision was 60 seconds. The other driver suffered severe traumatic injuries to her legs and lost consciousness shortly after the crash. She was flown by helicopter from the scene to IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. The suspect, David Garcia (23), had serious internal injuries as well and was transported by ambulance to IU Health Bloomington Hospital where he was ultimately transferred to the Intensive Care Unit. It is believed Garcia was impaired by alcohol at the time of the crash and results are pending.
Deputy Walls is filing a probable cause affidavit for Garcia’s arrest for OWI and Resisting Law Enforcement.
No MCSO deputies or vehicles were injured or damaged in this incident. State Road 46 was closed during the investigation. Officers from the Bloomington Police and Ellettsville Police Departments were especially helpful and assisted MCSO with traffic following this incident.”
