MIDDLEBURG, Fla. – A Clay County sheriff’s sergeant was released from the the hospital early Friday morning after a hit-and-run crash in Middleburg Thursday evening.
The Clay County Sheriff's Office said around 8:15 p.m. there was a head-on collision between a Clay County Sheriff’s Office patrol car and a truck on Blanding Boulevard and County Road 218.
Troopers with the Florida Highway Patrol said a truck was traveling south in the left turn lane on Blanding Boulevard, attempting to make a left turn to proceed west onto CR 218. The patrol car was traveling south in the left travel lane on Blanding Boulevard approaching CR 218.
The truck turned left into the path of the patrol car, troopers said. After the collision, the truck took off south on Blanding Boulevard.
The deputy, Sgt. Matthew Magish, was on duty in a marked car and was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Investigators said the airbags saved his life.
Magish is a 15-year veteran of law enforcement and has been hurt on the job once before.
The truck is described as a Ford F-250 that has front-end damage and is two-tone -- the top is dark and bottom is tan.
Deputies said the driver of the truck pulled into the nearby CVS after the crash and then fled south.
A description of the driver was not released.
Deputies said the truck had a full-sized or heavy duty brush guard push bumper on its front.
It sustained damage and the person may be trying to remove it or parts of it may be gone, they said.
Investigators are talking to witnesses and looking through surveillance video to try to track down the driver responsible for hitting the patrol car and then leaving the deputy in the middle of a busy intersection.
Investigators even stopped by Burgart Enterprises Body Shop to ask the owner, John Burgart, if he'd seen the truck they're looking for.
“He was just asking for information, if somebody had come by with a particular type vehicle or what not that had some body damage on there, and I told him not yet,” Burgart said. “I mean, anything is possible. They could be coming, but nothing yet.”
Burgart said he'll be looking out for the truck.
“I always do when they show me a picture,” Burgart said. “If (that) truck is in here, I'm calling them up and telling them I've seen it and any information I have on it.”
That's what the Sheriff’s Office wants everyone to do, call them if they see a truck matching the description, or anything that may be out of the ordinary.
“Key things to look for -- a neighbor who had a vehicle and never parks that vehicle in the garage, well now that vehicle is parked in the garage or if you see damage to a push bumper,” Undersheriff Craig Aldrich said.
As they work to find the hit-and-run driver, the Sheriff's Office said it's happy Magish is OK and grateful for the good Samaritans who rushed to help him after the crash.
But deputies want to bring the driver to justice.
“Hit and runs -- that's not something new. We see those, but when you run into a deputy in the middle of an intersection and you just leave them, what does that say about what you would do to the average citizen?” Burgart said.
The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating the accident.
Anyone who has information about the crash or who has seen the truck or knows the driver is asked to call 911.