KING WILLIAM — A sheriff’s office patrol car in King William County ran off the road and overturned Monday, less than a month after two patrol cars collided during the pursuit of a motorcyclist.

According to state police reports, a King William sheriff’s deputy was responding to a mental health crisis call about 2:10 a.m. on Sept. 1 with the lights and sirens activated when the car ran off the right side of the highway near River Road and Sparrow Lane.

The crash occurred weeks after a King William supervisor expressed alarm about the number of wrecks involving deputies’ vehicles. Nine have sustained damage over the last year.

On Monday, the 2016 Dodge Charger struck a fence and a tree before overturning. The 29-year-old deputy was removed by fire crews. He was not injured by the impact but was taken by ambulance to VCU Medical Center in Richmond as a precaution, state police said. He was wearing his seat belt at the time. No other vehicle was involved.

King William Sheriff Don Lumpkin said the deputy was traveling in a spare patrol vehicle and blamed a “possible mechanical failure,” but said the crash is still under investigation.

Two patrol vehicles collided on Aug. 9 at the intersection of Richmond Tappahannock Highway and Newtown Road. The deputies had been chasing a motorcycle at speeds exceeding 100 mph. The motorcyclist, 52-year-old Carleton Van Rensselaer of Aylett, was arrested several weeks later.

Neither deputy sustained life-threatening injuries, but one deputy received staples in his head at a local hospital after the crash.

The incident sparked a confrontation between Lumpkin and Supervisor Bill Hodges, a former West Point police chief, at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Aug. 11. Hodges worried about the county’s insurance cutting it off if more crashes occurred and said he was “really concerned” about deputies or citizens being killed.

Another King William patrol car sustained damage recently when it was rammed by an offender.

A Freedom of Information request to the King William Sheriff’s Office revealed eight patrol vehicles have been damaged over the last year “due to accidents or deliberate acts by criminals.”

Anyone with information about the Aug. 9 crash is asked to contact Deputy M.R. Douglas at 804-769-0999 or by email at mark.douglas@kwc.gov.

David Macaulay, Davidmacaulayva@gmail.com

 

https://www.pilotonline.com/2025/09/04/king-william-patrol-car-damaged-in-wreck-deputy-unhurt/