# South Carolina Officer Injured In Crash



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=30253



Courtesy of Tracy Smith-Kimball/The Herald 
*Rock Hill police and forensics officials discuss a car crash involving an officer.*

*Charles D. Perry*
_Courtesy of The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.)_

A Rock Hill police officer was at Piedmont Medical Center on Wednesday night after the patrol car he was driving plowed into a utility pole earlier in the day.

Officer Thomas Hutchinson was injured around 4:20 p.m. when his car struck a pole at the intersection of Marion and Green streets, authorities said.

Hutchinson, 43, was traveling north on Marion Street when he went off the left side of the road, said Lance Cpl. Bryan McDougald of the S.C. Highway Patrol.

Rock Hill police Lt. Jerry Waldrop said the Highway Patrol is handling the case instead of the police department because the crash involved a Rock Hill officer.

Waldrop said he could only say that Hutchinson was involved in an accident and that he was alert and talking to EMS workers when he was transported to PMC.

A 16-year department veteran, Hutchinson was reassigned from lieutenant to senior patrol officer last fall and made headlines earlier this year after opting for a public grievance hearing. Hutchinson asked to be reinstated by a city grievance panel, saying he was the target of racial discrimination and was never given a fair chance to do his job. The panel found no evidence of discrimination against him.

At the time of Wednesday's crash, Hutchinson was wearing a seat belt, said McDougald, who said the officer's speed wasn't yet known. The speed limit on the street is 30 mph.

Hutchinson didn't seem to be going very fast to Martha Hinson, who saw the crash from the dining room of her house across the street.

A York Technical College student, Hinson was preparing for a final Algebra exam when she saw an unusual white flash go by.

She said she heard no brakes and couldn't see a driver.

"It looked like the car was aiming for the light pole," she said.

After witnessing the wreck, she grabbed her cordless phone and called 911.

"I said, 'Oh my God! You've had an officer hit a light pole,' " she recalled saying.

Hinson watched people open the car doors and call "Hutch," the nickname of the officer who used to live in her neighborhood.

A hospital spokeswoman said she couldn't give Hutchinson's condition because he didn't want the hospital to release any information about him.

Charles D. Perry: 329-4068 | [email protected]

Copyright © 2006 The Herald, Rock Hill, South Carolina

_Republished with permission of The Herald._​


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