Site Logo

Oroville Police Officer's health improving after collision with cow

Published 4:41 pm Friday, July 17, 2009

By Gary DeVon

Officer Patterson's Patrol Car in the Oroville equipment yard behind the Depot Museum. Covered with a blue tarp, much of the wreckage is hidden from view, but emergency personal at the scene described the damage caused by the collision with a cow on Hwy.
Officer Patterson's Patrol Car in the Oroville equipment yard behind the Depot Museum. Covered with a blue tarp, much of the wreckage is hidden from view, but emergency personal at the scene described the damage caused by the collision with a cow on Hwy.
Officer Patterson's Patrol Car in the Oroville equipment yard behind the Depot Museum. Covered with a blue tarp, much of the wreckage is hidden from view, but emergency personal at the scene described the damage caused by the collision with a cow on Hwy.

Officer Patterson’s Patrol Car in the Oroville equipment yard behind the Depot Museum. Covered with a blue tarp, much of the wreckage is hidden from view, but emergency personal at the scene described the damage caused by the collision with a cow on Hwy.

SPOKANE – Officer Christopher Patterson, seriously injured when his patrol car collided with a cow on U.S. Highway 97, is showing marked improvements, according to Oroville Police Chief Clay Warnstaff.

“He called me this morning from his room at the hospital and said he had just gone for a walk in the hallway using a walker,” Chief Warnstaff reported to the Oroville City Council and Mayor at their Tuesday, July 7 meeting.

Patterson sustained serious injuries when his patrol car hit a cow in the northbound lane of U.S. Highway 97 approximately nine miles south of Oroville on Wednesday, July 24 at 1:30 a.m. He was being treated for head trauma, according to the Washington State Patrol, which is investigating the accident.

Warnstaff said the plan was to move the police officer from ICU to the rehabilitation floor and from their to move him to St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Center.

“He remembers everything up to the point of the cow,” Warnstaff said. “He remembered after some prompting the DV complaint and the names of the people involved.”

The chief said it was not unusual for people to block out some parts of an accident as a “defense mechanism.”

Patterson’s patrol car, a late model Chevrolet Impala, was destroyed in the crash.

About Gary DeVon

Gary DeVon is the managing editor of the Okanogan Valley Gazette-Tribune and celebrated his 25th year at the newspaper in August 2012. He graduated from Gonzaga University with a degree in Communications - Print Journalism, with an emphasis in photojournalism. He is a proud alumnus of Oroville High School. His family first settled in Okanogan County in the late 1800s. His parents are Judy DeVon and the late Larry DeVon and he has two younger brothers - Dante and Michael. Many family members still call Oroville home. He has a grown daughter, Segornae Douglas and a young granddaughter, Erin.

email author More by Gary

You Might Like