An Enid, Ok Police Department officer struck by a car following the city’s fireworks display at Meadowlake Park Friday night remained hospitalized for observation Saturday, police said.
Officer Tom Corbin, a 17-year veteran of the force, was conducting traffic control at Cleveland and Rupe when he was hit by a 1991 Ford Escort traveling south on Cleveland and driven by David Colbentz.

Corbin was taken by Life EMS to St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center for incapacitating injuries to his head, body, arms and legs, according to an Enid police report.
Sgt. Quent Tubbs said Corbin was in the intensive care unit at the hospital Saturday afternoon and was in stable condition.

According to a police report, Colbentz, 27, of Enid, told police as he approached the intersection the stoplight was green and he saw flashing lights. Colbentz said he asked passengers in the car what the lights were for and then struck Corbin in the street. The accident occurred about 10:55.
Officers said the lights from Corbin’s unit — parked on Rupe just east of the intersection to block traffic from going east on Rupe toward the park — could be seen 108 feet from the area where Corbin was hit, the report states.

The stoplights were in regular working order while the officer was directing traffic to ease the flow from the fireworks show, which was attended by hundreds, a police official said.
The passengers in Colbentz’s vehicle said they did not see Corbin in the roadway, according to the report.

Witnesses told police Cor-bin, who was wearing a reflective vest and had an orange cone on his flashlight, had allowed a northbound SUV to turn west onto Rupe from Cleveland just be-fore he was hit, according to the report.
As this SUV turned west onto Rupe, its headlamps would have shined into the face of driver 1 (Colbentz) which may have contributed to him not seeing the officer in the roadway ...,” the report states.

Another witness behind the SUV told officers Corbin had directed him to turn, and as he started to do so Colbentz’s vehicle was there and Corbin appeared to try to side-step the vehicle.
After the vehicle hit the officer, Corbin was thrown approximately 10 feet from the point of impact, according to the report. Colbentz told officers he was traveling around the speed limit, which is 40 mph in that area.

Officers said the vehicle had a caved-in windshield and roof damage near the windshield where Corbin struck the Escort.
Diagrams in the report show trees line the sides of Cleveland north of the intersection, the direction from which Colbentz was approaching, and there are no street lights in the area.

Measurements taken at the scene indicate once the lights of Corbin’s vehicle could be seen past the trees by southbound vehicles, Colbentz would not have had enough time to come to a complete stop traveling at 40 mph, the report states.However, Colbentz said he did not see the officer, and there were not skid marks before impact to indicate he had slowed.According to the report, Colbentz’s condition at the time of the incident was listed as normal.”
The incident remains under investigation. No citations had been issued as of Saturday.

http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_187235506.html

108 feet at 40 MPH isn't much breathing room. And it sounds like he was blinded by the lights of another car to boot. And no warning that there was a a flagger ahead. I don't see how the driver could be held to be at fault here, other than the fact that he hurt a 'good old boy'.

Poor Escort.


Only kidding.....

Sounds like the average accident. They do happen.
What would be the motivation to run over the cop? Killing him could land you in prison for life under certain circumstances. The driver didn't run. They weren't fleeing another crime when it happened and the cop wasn't trying to arrest them.

Emergency vehicles ("flashing lights"?) can disorient a driver at night as I'm sure most of us already know. No crime, just an unfortunate accident.

I'll disagree with you for all the same reasons. As you will hear from any officer in any state the posted speed limit is the maximum, not optimum for the area in question. If visibility was poor and the flashing lights of any emergency vehicle were present he had an absolute obligation to lower his speed and drive defensively - prepared for any obstruction that might present itself. He should never have been driving at 40mph if visibility conditions were such that he could not avoid striking a pedestrian or in this case an officer directing traffic. Totally his fault.

That's a good point, but the proximity of the lights and the general scene could dictate the circumstances. Perhaps the "flashing lights" were further away from the officer than I'm imagining and not clearly in the path of the vehicle.

But it's true that it's a driver's responsibility to proceed with caution if anything seems unusual and especially if emergency personnel are near.

I don't know, he had to be doing some speed to do that much damage to a human body. Why was he driving that fast in fireworks traffic? Around here you're lucky to reach 20 mph after a fireworks show.

Here's the deal about this accident. The road the escort was travelling on comes from town and goes towards the airforce base. The driver of the escort was headed South towards the Air BAse. The corner has street light, traffic lights, and the police car was visible. Rottmom is correct about fireworks traffic. For the most part it is slow and their are alot of pedestrians walking, IN FACT, there are cars parked along the side of this road, and Rupe, the East/West road watching the show from afar. However, the show was over, and probably most of the traffic was gone, but this driver should have slowed down. A person doesn't just buzz around blindly when there are so many obvious conditions.
1 It's July 4th a popular holiday
2 Your driving near the park where the fireworks show just ended
3 a logical person would know that the police would be thick directing traffic
4 even if the speed limit is 40, driving that speed when in doubt about "those lights" is ignorant
5 the SUV's lights were not in his eyes for "MINUTES" probably less than 15 seconds.


The guy driving the Escort was negligent. He should NOT have been going 40 MPH at that corner. Even on a clear day 40 mph is not the ususual speed when headed South, especially when an SUV just turned left right in front of you. A defensive driver would slow. I really don't buy the BS that he didn't or couldn't see the cop who was wearing an orange vest and had a flashlight with an orange cone.

I would sight the driver with failure to yeild, neglegence, disobedience to a police officer, failure to exercise ordinary care...

Do I win?

In my opinion...yes.
however...The incident is still under investigation.

I have a few vehicles that I drive. What is amazing is that even in my 4x4 which sits pretty tall, there are people that have headlights that literally blind the crap out of you. When this happens to me, I do reduce my speed and hold my foot above the brake.

Driver is wrong, pedestrians in this country have the right of way, unlike Europe. Failure to reduce speed, failure to yeild right of way, Improper lane usage, etc.

Go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200

Thanx, Lila. That's a better descriptive than I figured we'd get.

Yes, Fellixe. Looks like you do win.

You know, most of the time, I drive like that.
People tailgate me, flash their brights, scream at me, etc...This makes me very, very angry and distracts me - leaving me unable to drive for a while as I calm down. It's hard to get from point a to point b responsibly by every possible metric.

Sometimes this can be a balancing act where one has to calculate the risks of which is worse, driving significantly lower than posted speeds or not. Often times we are wrong in these guessing games.

I don't think anyone on he internet knows who is really to blame here.