A retired Georgia fire chief stopped to help a woman injured in a car crash -- but was then put in handcuffs for failing to remove his car from the scene, state police said.
Former Griffin fire battalion chief Emory Rickerson was driving down Ga. 109 in Pike County earlier this month when he spotted a car crash. Rickerson parked his Toyota Tundra and rushed to the driver’s aid.
“The car hit a culvert and flipped end-over-end. It was [a] very violent impact,” he told WSB-TV.
Rickerson saw a woman slumped over and not breathing, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
According to the police report, Rickerson moved her across the two front seats and rendered aid.
The actions may have saved her life. However, Rickerson was arrested.
Sgt. R.S. Jeter said in the police report Rickerson was asked to move his truck several times so that personnel could assist with the woman’s injuries.
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According to the police report, the former fire chief refused several times and even told a trooper: “I don’t care who you are. You can take me to jail, but I’m not moving my vehicle or leaving this patient right now.”
Rickerson told WSB-TV another bystander moved his truck for him while he continued to help the woman.
However, it didn’t end there. Jeter said Rickerson became “belligerent and kept talking over” the trooper on the scene.
Rickerson was eventually arrested for obstruction of an officer “due to the fact that he consistently refused to remove his car from the roadway,” Jeter wrote in his report, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
The retired fire chief, who is fighting the charges, says he doesn’t regret what he did and would do it again in a heartbeat.
“If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change anything,” he told WSB-TV. “I would still take care of that patient.”
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