Indiana Sheriff’s Deputy Killed in Car Crash While Responding to Call

A Monroe County, Indiana, Sheriff’s Deputy died when a 2006 GMC truck and trailer traveling the opposite direction on a two-lane road lost control and crossed into his lane, according to the Indiana State Police. Deputy James A. Driver, 38, was responding to an unrelated traffic incident when the crash occurred about 5 miles south of Bloomington, which is about an hour southeast of Indianapolis.

According to state police, Driver was driving south on State Route 45 with lights and sirens on when a truck pulling a trailer on the northbound side of the highway lost control and careened from the northbound lane into the southbound lane. Driver collided with the truck’s trailer. Police said Driver was ejected and pronounced dead at Indiana University Health Bloomington Hospital.

Police said the truck driver, Christopher Derr, 22, was transported to the hospital for a voluntary blood draw but was otherwise unhurt. Results of the blood test were not announced. Derr’s truck contained passengers who were also unhurt, police said. The accident closed off the highway for more than four hours.

The Jasonville, Indiana, Police Department said in a Facebook post that Driver was originally from the United Kingdom and joined the Monroe County Indiana Sheriff’s Office Reserve Division in June 2018 after graduating from the MCSO Reserve Academy. 

Driver is survived by his wife and three children. 

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund’s LEO fatalities report for 2020 reported 44 officer deaths from traffic-related incidents while on duty. Of those, 18 LEO deaths in 2020 were listed as caused by vehicle-versus-vehicle-type incidents, eight were single-vehicle accidents, 15 were officers struck while on the side of the road, and three were motorcycle crashes.