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Hurt, officer tries to help

By JACOB H. FRIES
Published April 5, 2007

CLEARWATER - After an SUV slammed into his cruiser early Wednesday, Officer Scott Dawson didn't quite know where he was or what had happened, police said.

But despite being stunned and hurt, Dawson crawled across the road, looking to help the other driver who had been ejected, they said. From the pavement, the 43-year-old officer radioed a dispatcher who sent numerous rescuers to the scene.

"The impact was tremendous," police spokesman Wayne Shelor said. The SUV put a dent about 2 feet deep into the cruiser's passenger compartment.

The driver of the sport utility vehicle, 44-year-old David Brent Lloyd of Clearwater, was flown to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, where he was in critical condition Wednesday afternoon. Dawson, taken to the same hospital by ambulance, was upgraded by afternoon to fair condition.

Dawson's police dog, a German shepherd named Koa, also suffered injuries in the crash but was expected to survive.

The wreck occurred at 2:13 a.m. Wednesday. Police said this is how it happened:

Lloyd, driving an Isuzu Rodeo, was three blocks from home, headed east on Rainbow Drive, just north of Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard. He had turned 44 the previous day.

He drove through the stop sign at Hercules Avenue and broadsided Dawson's cruiser, which had been going south on Hercules. Both vehicles were destroyed.

Police were still investigating the crash Wednesday afternoon and had not determined the speed of the vehicles. No charges had been filed.

Dawson, a 16-year Clearwater police veteran, made headlines in 2000 in connection with another dramatic crash. That time, a concrete truck smashed into a garbage truck, plowed through a guardrail and caught fire off State Road 580.

Dawson, who had heard the collision from the Countryside police substation, ran to his cruiser, grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to put out the flames that had trapped the driver. He sprayed until the extinguisher was empty.

The truck's driver, Dawson later learned, had died on impact.

Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.

[Last modified April 4, 2007, 22:02:48]