A Cedartown Police officer is recovering in a Chattanooga area hospital today after sustaining serious injuries from a wreck as he was rendering aid to a fellow officer early Sunday morning.
Cedartown Police Chief Jamie Newsome says that as another officer was attempting to pull over a driver on East Avenue, the driver was throwing items out of the car and refused to stop. Those items were later determined to be baggies of suspected methamphetamine.
Officer Josh Turner was responding to a call from the pursuing officer for back up.
“Officer Turner was responding to that request for assistance when he lost control of his patrol car on the wet road,” said Newsome. “He went headlong into a building on the west end of Main Street in the 400 block.”
Turner was transported to Floyd Medical Center in Rome and then airlifted to Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga. Newsome said that he had undergone surgery on Sunday for some serious injuries but is expected to survive.
“The thing that we are thankful for is that we didn’t lose Josh,” said Newsome. “We are behind him 100 percent.”
The officers had to leave the traffic stop to render aid to Officer Turner, but an investigation is currently underway.