< Back to Previous Page

Florida State Trooper Injured In Car Crash

A Florida Highway Patrol trooper injured nearly two weeks ago when he was hit by a car during a traffic stop was expected to be released from the hospital on Friday, news partner NBC 6 reported. Darryl Haywood Jr., 'whose father was a state trooper who was killed in the line of duty, had his own close call when he suffered a severe concussion as a result of the Jan. 22 crash on Florida's Turnpike in Hollywood. Doctors at the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital say it could be months before Haywood is back on active duty, but his prognosis for recovery is good. Haywood was injured when a motorist rear-ended his parked patrol car and crumpled it like an accordion, authorities said. He was trapped in his crushed 2003 Ford Crown Victoria for nearly half an hour before being released and airlifted to Ryder Trauma Center.

The 20-year-old trooper was found bleeding profusely from the head. Three others were also injured in the 7 a.m. three-car accident, which happened just south of the Hollywood Boulevard exit while Haywood was sitting in his patrol car writing a traffic ticket. Haywood had pulled over a 1996 Hyundai driven by Ratasha Washington, 27, of Miami. The patrol car and the Hyundai were stopped and parked on the west shoulder of the roadway when a 1994 Dodge pickup driven by Robert Frederick Dimmle, 22, of Fort Lauderdale, veered from the center lane "for unknown reasons," according to a Florida Highway Patrol news release. The pickup rear-ended the patrol car, causing it to rear-end the Hyundai. Finally, the pickup overturned and came to a rest in the center lane, the release says. Southbound lanes of the turnpike were closed for about three hours. A passenger in the pickup, Clunie Milhomme, 23, of Fort Lauderdale, also was airlifted to the trauma center. The other two drivers, who were not seriously injured, were taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood.

Haywood's father, Darryl Haywood Sr., was the 39th Florida trooper to die in the line of duty. He was 49 when he died in an October 2004 crash while chasing a speeding motorcyclist on Interstate 4 in Volusia County. The elder Haywood was pursuing Hillsborough County motorcyclist Donald Williams, with their speeds topping 100 mph, when a tire blew out on Haywood's Chevrolet Camaro, causing him to spin out, strike another car and crash into a pine tree. Williams was sentenced to 30 years in prison on charges of aggravated manslaughter and aggravated fleeing and eluding a law-enforcement officer causing death. Haywood Sr. had joined the agency in 2000 after a 20-year career with the New York Police Department.