Go to the source for wreck facts

Apr. 24—By Barry Porterfield — bporterfield@pvdemocrat.com

When there are questions about the facts of a trooper's initial assessment of a vehicle collision, they need to be directed to the source to get answers.

One such situation recently arose in Garvin County when a couple of teenagers were hurt in an accident a few miles outside of Elmore City.

Parents of the teens were quick to express plenty of concerns about the accuracy of the assessment, which ultimately appeared in a story published in the local newspaper.

Those concerns centered on seat belt usage and how the teens, were transported to an Oklahoma City hospital.

Capt. Shelby Humphrey of the Troop F region of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said the potential differences between these early alerts going out to media, which typically show up in the paper and online, and an investigating trooper's final report might help people better understand.

"I was not at that accident site, so I don't know for sure," Humphrey said about the crash back on March 22.

"Maybe the vehicle did stop but not yield to oncoming traffic, I don't know. Could a trooper get something like a position backward, it's possible."

Humphrey calls them "teletypes," more like an early alert to the media and others of some type of vehicle crash resulting in either a tragic death or someone being injured enough to be admitted into a hospital.

"This is alerting the media to what happened, that there was some type of collision, what details we know at the time," he said about the early notification emailed out to media like the Pauls Valley Democrat.

"This is the initial information released by the OHP. It's not the official traffic collision report. With more investigation, a trooper could change his accident report.

"If parents have concerns they should contact Troop F and ask to talk to the investigating officer."