By Michael Moore Jr.
The Bradenton Herald
BRADENTON, Fla. — A Manatee County deputy’s patrol car rolled over late Sunday night when a suspected drunk driver veered into oncoming traffic and hit the vehicle head-on, the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office said the deputy was on routine patrol around 11:45 p.m. and was turning into the parking lot of the agency’s Operations Center at US 301 Blvd. W., Bradenton, when a pickup truck veered into the southbound lanes and struck his patrol car, causing it to flip over.
According to a news release, nearby deputies helped the deputy with the overturned vehicle. The crash knocked him unconscious and he was later treated at a local hospital for minor cuts.
A video of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Operations Center parking lot appeared to capture the crash. In footage posted to social media Tuesday afternoon, a pickup truck can be seen plowing into a patrol car.
Body camera video showed the inside of the deputy’s overturned vehicle at the time of the crash. As an airbag deployed, the deputy radioed to dispatch that there had been an accident.
Footage from another deputy’s body camera showed him running to the scene and helping the deputy out of the vehicle with assistance from a second deputy.
“We’ve got you, we’ve got you. You alright?” one of them said. The deputy responded that he was.
“Do you remember what happened?” they asked.
“Yeah, they crossed over the median and hit me head-on,” the deputy said.
Later footage showed deputies breaking the window of the pickup truck and ordering the driver to get out.
“What do you want me to do?” the man asked.
“Get out of the car, that’s what we want you to do,” a deputy replied.
“I’m good,” the driver appeared to say before deputies repeatedly told him to turn around and placed him in handcuffs.
“No, you’re drunk,” one deputy said.
Investigators said they identified the pickup truck driver as 47-year-old William Thomas . Detectives said Thomas showed signs of impairment, including a strong smell of alcohol, and initially refused to perform sobriety exercises.
Deputies took Thomas to the hospital for evaluation, the sheriff’s office said. After he was released, they brought him to the Manatee County Jail . He agreed to take a breath test, which the sheriff’s office said showed blood alcohol levels of 0.279 and 0.268, more than three times the legal limit.
Thomas is charged with driving under the influence, causing property damage or injury, according to the sheriff’s office.
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