2 remain hospitalized in bypass collsion

Kentucky State Police are continuing to investigate a 2-vehicle injury accident involving an off-duty state trooper that closed a portion of the Shelbyville Bypass for several hours Monday night.

By Lisa King

Three people in this Kia were injured in a collision with a Kentucky State Police trooper's canine unit on the Shelbyville Bypass Monday night. The trooper was not injured.

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Lisa King

In this reconstruction on Tuesday, the two cars have been placed exactly as they are thought to have impacted.

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All three occupants of a 2002 Kia Rio, driven by Helen Waits, 52, of Shelbyville, were hospitalized, and two them remain so.

The Kentucky State Police Trooper, Todd Maggard, was not injured.

Waits is listed in fair condition, and one of her passengers, Rosaland Wakefield, 62, is stable after being taken to the University of Louisville Hospital. A second passenger, Kathy Reynolds, 46, has been discharged from Jewish Hospital Shelbyville.

Kentucky State Police trooper Hunter Martin, who is heading up reconstruction efforts, said that Waits’ Kia collided with  Maggard’s Chevy Tahoe when she turned into the path of his vehicle.

Both were traveling north when Waits suddenly attempted to make a U-Turn from the right hand lane. Maggard was traveling in the left lane, a little behind her, and she evidently just did not see him, Martin said.

Maggard, who was driving a K-9 unit but did not have a dog with him, had just left Collins High School, where he helps coach the baseball team.

The crash happened at 7 p.m. on Freedom’s Way, about a half-mile north of the U.S. 60 intersection, right in front of Pure Reflection Body Shop, shutting down the northbound lanes.

On Tuesday morning, state police and the Shelbyville Fire Department, which had assisted in getting the women out of the Kia, used tow trucks to put the vehicles back on the bypass in the exact positions at which the impact was thought to have occurred.

Martin said this is the standard procedure in serious accidents and fatalities and also when a police officer is involved in the crash.

He said he has not yet determined whether alcohol will be a factor in the crash.