SC trooper hit by car during traffic stop sues Lexington Co. sheriff’s dept
A Lexington County sheriff’s deputy “failed to follow safety protocols and training” causing the driver of another car to hit a South Carolina Highway Patrol Trooper during a routine traffic stop, according to a lawsuit filed by the injured trooper in mid-November.
The deputy, Dave Witter, stopped abruptly in an active lane of traffic without turning on his emergency lights or hazards, the lawsuit said. That, in turn, caused drivers behind him to slam on brakes and one driver, Jerrod Ricks, to lose control of his vehicle and hit Master Trooper Wayne H. LaBounty, who was conducting the stop along U.S. 1/Augusta Highway in Lexington County.
“It’s certainly against all best practices of law enforcement to stop in the middle of a four-lane road, an active lane of travel without putting on your lights. There’s no reason [Witter] should’ve done that and that set off a chain of events where vehicles driving behind him had to abruptly stop, slow down and avoid hitting him,” Robert F. Goings, an attorney with Goings Law Firm representing LaBounty, told The State.
LaBounty was airlifted to Prisma Health Richland hospital in serious condition following the Sept. 9 crash. He has “a long road to recovery” ahead of him, Goings said. The lawsuit, filed in Lexington’s common pleas court Nov. 14, came less than two months after his release from the hospital in late September and alleged gross negligence on the parts of two drivers involved in the wreck, one of the drivers’ employers and the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department.
“This is less about the sheriff’s department failing to follow proper protocol. For us, it’s about a state trooper who was doing everything right that day, who put on his service vest, put on his uniform and his life is now forever changed,” Goings said.
The crash followed a string of accidents, at least three occasions between August and early September, in which a state highway patrol trooper was injured on a Midlands road while making a traffic stop. In August, Trooper First Class Dennis D. Ricks died days after being hit by a passing box truck during a routine stop in Orangeburg County.
Witter, the Lexington deputy involved in the crash that hit LaBounty, had graduated from the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy in January of this year, according to the county sheriff department’s office. The State has requested a copy of his personnel file from the Criminal Justice Academy.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department led the investigation into the crash, The State previously reported.
When reached with questions about whether Witter was still employed with the department, a spokesperson for the Lexington County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond. The State also asked about the department’s typical protocol for traffic stops and did not immediately receive a response.
Since January of this year, the sheriff’s department has been named as a defendant in at least five suits involving how its officers have handled situations. One woman sued the department in September over her wrongful arrest and a former inmate sued in July alleging delay of medical care while he was suffering from symptoms of AIDS.
