Wayne County patrolman hit by suspected drunk driver
RICHMOND, Ind. (WISH) — The police vehicle of an on-duty patrolman with the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office was hit Saturday night by a driver police say was heavily intoxicated, the sheriff said Monday.
Taylor Scalf, 28, was arrested on preliminary charges of operating while intoxicated with a prior conviction, operating while intoxicated, endangering a person and operating while intoxicated with a blood concentration of 0.15% or higher.
Just before midnight Saturday, patrolman TJ Brown was driving east on U.S. 40 west of Salisbury Road in Richmond when he saw a car headed toward him that was left of the centerline.
The sheriff says Brown swerved toward the westbound lanes of U.S. 40 to try and avoid a head-on collision. The car continued to come toward him and struck the rear passenger side door of his patrol car.
Brown was not injured and Scalf had minor injuries. The sheriff said the license plates of the car Scalf was driving did not belong to her.
Scalf was taken to a local hospital for a drug and alcohol test. Her blood alcohol concentration was 0.32%, just over four times Indiana’s legal limit of 0.08%.
She was being held Monday at the Wayne County Jail.
Online court records show Scalf was convicted of misdemeanor drunk driving in 2019.
