Andrews – A town police officer reached a speed of 64 mph on a downtown street before wrecking a patrol vehicle last week.
Officer Coyle Olsen was dispatched to investigate a reported overdose around 7:36 p.m. Friday when he apparently jumped a curb at the United Community Bank branch on Main Street.
Photographs of the wreck show the vehicle’s airbag had deployed. The vehicle also appears to have sustained a busted front tire and damage to the car’s front bumper. The photos show the patrol vehicle parked in the grass several feet away from the bank.
Andrews Police Chief Colin Gillespie and Town Administrator Sandy Dobson did not respond to a message requesting information about the accident. A state police public information officer did not respond to an email and phone calls, either. No collision report is available via the state’s website as of the Cherokee Scout’s press time Tuesday morning.
The Scout learned Olsen’s speed at the time of the wreck via a records request through the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, which tracks the location of all law enforcement vehicles operated in the county.
Records show that Olsen’s speed wildly fluctuated over the span of mere seconds. At 7:38:22 p.m., Olsen’s speed registers at 8 mph. Eighteen seconds later, he’s clocked at 56 mph; and seven seconds after that, Olsen’s speed registers at 20 mph.
Over the course of the following 16 seconds, Olsen reaches 55 mph and at 7:39:08, his speed registers at 64 mph. Three seconds later, Olsen is clocked at 58 mph; and two seconds after that his speed registers at 54 mph.
At 7:39:20, Olsen’s speed drops to 3 mph. The posted speed limits downtown are 20 mph and 25 mph.
Medics were dispatched to the crash and found that Olsen had suffered a bump on his head. Meanwhile, a sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to cover the overdose call.
Olsen was hired by the Andrews Police Department in August. He has also served as a part-time deputy patrol officer with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office and as a full-time public safety dispatcher in Clay County.