Former Griffin fire chief Emory Leroy Rickerson was arrested after saving the life of a crash victim who stopped breathing when he refused to move his Toyota truck from the scene. The incident started when the retired Georgia fire chief rushed to aid a woman who crashed and ran off the road. Rickerson pulled over his Toyota Tundra on the westbound shoulder of Ga. 109 in Pike County October 10 and ran to the woman's car.
Rickerson found the driver slumped over and not breathing and he quickly pulled her across the front seats and began CPR to save her life. Channel 2 Action News reported the woman is alive thanks to his quick actions at the scene and she is currently at a rehabilitation center McDonough. The injuries sustained in the crash left her with a broken arm and she is currently without the use of her legs. When authorities arrived they asked Rickerson to move his truck off the shoulder so that emergency personnel could tend to the woman but he refused to leave her side saying, "I don’t care who you are. You can take me to jail, but I’m not moving my vehicle or leaving this patient right now."
Sgt. R.S. Jeter wrote in his report that he tried to reason with Rickerson who became "belligerent and kept talking over" him. Jeter finally arrested Rickerson for obstruction of an officer “due to the fact that he consistently refused to remove his car from the roadway." Rickerson has since bailed out of jail and is currently fighting the charges. Rickerson said in an interview, "If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change anything. I would still take care of that patient."
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This happen in our neck of the woods (about 5 miles from here). The retired Chief was a hero, actively in the middle of CPR and redering aid situation. Ga Good Samaritan law O.C.G.A. § 51-1-29. likely has his back. Likely the DA will drop the case, the Police Officer will go quite and the Retired chief, we hear, will be slapped on the wrists to stroke everybodies feathers.