Butler County Sheriff's Office

[Public Info Officer]

Deputy Rescues Crash Victim from Burning Car

Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones reports Deputy Shannon Cook (female), assigned to road patrol less than six months, happened to be in the right place at the right time yesterday, December 19, likely saving the life of a New Miami resident. Deputy Cook was on routine patrol shortly before 5 PM last evening. As she turned onto Trenton Road from Jackson Road (in St. Clair Township), she could see some of the aftermath from a crash that had just happened a little further down the road at the intersection of Trenton Road and Riverside Drive. She radioed in her location and summoned rescue assistance. At the crash scene, she found 21-year-old Roger Abney, Jr., from New Miami, off the roadway sitting behind the wheel inside a car that was on fire.

Dep. Cook struggled to force the jammed driver door open, then cut the driver’s seat belt with a pocket knife, and helped him exit the burning vehicle. Abney was taken to Fort Hamilton Hospital by St. Clair Township Squad a short time later, then was Air-Cared from Fort Hamilton to University Hospital in Cincinnati. He remains hospitalized there, but appears likely to recover.

Preliminary investigation indicates Abney was southbound on Trenton Road in a 1993 Mercury, and attempted to turn left onto Riverside Drive. In making that attempted turn, he pulled directly into the path of a northbound 1996 International dump truck driven by 55-year-old Danny Hornsby, of Jackson Road, Hamilton. After impact, the dump truck pushed the Abney vehicle off the roadway into a utility pole and a tree, where that vehicle caught fire. Although the dump truck sustained heavy damage, Hornsby, assessed by medical personnel at the scene, appeared to suffer no significant injury. The crash remains under investigation by the Sheriff’s Office.


Prepared by: Det. Monte Mayer
Public Information Officer