FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. – A deputy who failed to pull over a wrong-way driver who passed him before causing a fatal crash has been terminated from his position as punishment for his inaction, according to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office.
Officials said Deputy Robert Finn was supposed to respond as backup to a medical call on Carlson Lane in Palm Coast at 2:04 a.m. on April 16. While on his way to that call, a wrong-way driver drove past him as he was exiting Interstate 95 at Palm Coast Parkway, the report said.
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Finn had to take evasive action to avoid a head-on collision but he did not pull over the vehicle because he said he thought that he saw the vehicle turn at the end of the ramp to correct its course.
Instead, Finn continued to the medical call even though another deputy and medical units had already arrived at that scene. He arrived there at 2:14 a.m., one minute after dispatch received a report of a wrong-way crash on I-95.
Finn responded to the scene of that crash at 2:17 a.m.
An internal investigation found that the vehicle that passed Finn while driving the wrong way was the same vehicle that caused the crash.
That crash left the wrong-way driver, Wendell Parker, dead and another driver seriously injured.
“This is a tragic case where Deputy R. Finn witnessed a vehicle traveling in the wrong direction and failed to take immediate action,” Undersheriff Jack Bisland said. “While we will never know with certainty if Deputy R. Finn could have changed the sequence of events and prevented this crash by attempting to stop the vehicle, we do know that as a law enforcement officer it was his duty to take immediate action and he failed to do so.”
Officials said Finn has 10 days to appeal his termination. He had been employed with the Sheriff's Office since June 15, 2011.