Sheriff's Office Discusses Recent Traffic Accidents, Urges Drivers To "Wake Up"

Sheriff's patrol SUV side-swiped by a Grayson Co. man.

Darren Doyle, story and photo
It was an unlucky event for one Grayson County man recently when he tried to avoid a rear-end collision by maneuvering around an SUV on HWY 259N.

Turns out that the SUV was an Edmonson County Sheriff's patrol vehicle being driven by Deputy Wally Ritter. Dep. Ritter had been heading north when he slowed down to turn right in to a driveway. 

According to KSP, William Hodge, 31, of Clarkson didn't notice Ritter's vehicle and tried to avoid the vehicle by swerving to the right side the road way, but ended up side-swiping the SUV, causing anywhere from $3K to $4,000 worth of damage.    

---

Ritter said he was milliseconds from making the turn, which could've had disastrous results in a possible t-bone collision. No one was hurt, but law enforcement is urging everyone to pay closer attention to their surroundings in the wake of several accidents over the past week, some that were very serious.

"I'm not sure what it is," said Sheriff Shane Doyle. "This was just a fender-bender, but it could have been very serious. People need to wake up, slow down, put their phones down and just concentrate on driving. We've had several residents seriously hurt over the past week, including some teenagers and small kids."

While Doyle said none of the recent accidents were said to have definitely been caused by distracted driving, he mentioned that there are more ways for drivers to be distracted today than ever before.

Kentucky State Police Information Officer B.J. Eaton also encouraged all drivers to give 100% of their attention to their driving while on the highways.  "It's an awesome responsibility to drive on the roadway and the safety of everyone on Kentucky roadways depends a lot on folks paying complete attention while doing so," he said.

Trooper Eaton also added that a huge number of collisions are attributed to distracted driving and in-attention. "With that being said, that means several collisions could possibly be avoided if we all committed to giving our driving our complete attention and eliminate any and all distractions."

Sheriff Doyle said that the department SUV can easily be repaired, and that wasn't the issue. He said the point is for drivers to concentrate on the road. "Sometimes accidents just happen for whatever reason, but other times they can be prevented with a little care. Taking your eyes off the road for a split second can have devastating effects. We're just asking everyone to use a little more caution," he said. ​