Bizarre traffic accident kills a Sand Springs Police horse

Tuesday, April 25th 2006, 9:42 am

By: News On 6

A traffic accident early Sunday morning nearly killed a Sand Springs police officer as he crashed into a horse with his police cruiser. The horse was in the middle of the road. Even stranger is the fact the horse was part of the Sand Springs Mounted Police Patrol.

News on 6 reporter Steve Berg has the story.

"I think it's by the grace of God that he survived." Sand Springs Assistant Police Chief Mike Carter is talking about his fellow police officer and friend Rusty Pope, whose smashed police cruiser doesn't look like it has enough room left in the front seat for a person to escape.

"He was on his way to work and crested a rise in the road just west of 137th West Avenue on 41st Street." It was 5:45 in the morning and dark on a 50 MPH road, when Pope suddenly found 3 horses on the road in front of him. His car slammed into one.

Carter says what made this accident so dangerous is that when the officer hit the horse, the horse's body flipped up and over the hood of the car, so the bulk of the impact hit the passenger compartment.

By sheer coincidence the horse Rex was part of the Sand Springs Police's Mounted Patrol and Pope is one of the mounted patrol's riders. "Being unfortunate enough to strike an animal and then have it be a police horse, I don't what the irony is there."

Mike Carter says the gate on the horses' corral was found open, but they don't know how it got that way.

"It's small enough that we're a tight-knit family and we know each other's families and y'know Rusty is a loved part of our family. We care a lot about him." Officer Pope is still in the hospital. He has four fractures to his face.

The horse, Rex, died at the scene.