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Officer Down: Deputy Sheriff Sarah Jones

Age: 27

Cause of Death: Struck by vehicle

Deputy Sarah Jones succumbed to injuries sustained two days earlier when she was struck by a vehicle.

Deputy Jones was directing traffic, where a wrecker was removing a stranded vehicle from a ravine, on State Road 45 near Melton's Orchard and Airport Road in Bloomington at approximately 10:30 pm. Deputy Jones was initially transported to Bloomington Hospital, but was later airlifted to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis where she remained until succumbing to her injuries.

Deputy Jones had served with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office for eight months and was a US Air Force veteran. She is survived by her husband.

Indy deputy dies after being hit by teen

By Francesca Jarosz
Indianapolis Star

MONROE COUNTY, Ind. — Deputy Sarah Jones' death Sunday from injuries she suffered in a line-of-duty traffic accident left colleagues in the close-knit Monroe County Sheriff's Department devastated and grieving the loss of a promising law enforcement officer.

"The impact of this loss has been significant, to say the least," said Monroe County Sheriff Jim Kennedy, who praised Jones' abilities. "She was extremely well-liked and a tremendous contributor to what we do."

Jones, 27, was directing traffic Friday on Ind. 45, a two-lane road just south of Bloomington, as a wrecker pulled a vehicle out of a ditch on the south side of the road. She was hit by an eastbound Jeep driven by 16-year-old Bree Myers, Bloomington.

Jones was taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis and died Sunday.

Myers was not injured and was not cited Friday. State Police said she was driving slower than the posted speed limit of 45 mph.

Jones' on-duty death marks the first around Bloomington since the mid-1970s, said Kennedy, who has worked in various police departments in the area for the past 42 years.

Jones joined the Sheriff's Department in February 2008 after serving a year and a half with the Police Department in Montgomery, Ala., Kennedy said. Before that, she was in the U.S. Air Force for four years.

She moved to Indiana with her husband, Christopher, who is a firefighter with the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center, Kennedy said.

The two had been married about a year and had no children, Kennedy said.

From 1995 to 2000, three Indiana State Police troopers and a motor carrier were killed after being hit by vehicles in the line of duty, said State Police spokesman Sgt. Wayne Flick.

Those deaths led to a 1999 law requiring drivers to move to the left lane or slow down as they approach an emergency vehicle stopped at the roadside, Flick said.

Some troopers have been hit by vehicles since 2000, Flick said, but none have been killed.

But, he said, drivers still need to use more caution when approaching emergency vehicles with flashing lights alongside roadsides.

"I think we've just gotten lucky," Flick said. "People don't pay attention to (flashing) lights unless they're behind them."

Copyright 2008 Indianapolis Star