Pryor Daily Times

November 20, 2007

Delaware detective hospitalized

Janet Warford-Perry

WYANDOTTE — A Delaware County detective was listed in poor condition following an automobile accident early Sunday morning.

Lance L. Fields, 35, Grove, was transported via Med Flight to St. John’s hospital in Joplin, Mo. He was admitted with head, trunk internal and trunk external injuries, after being ejected 42 feet from the vehicle he was driving, Trooper Ben Bertram reported.

Fields has a broken back, possibly a broken neck, and is in a “self-induced coma,” according to Capt. Larry Barnett, of the Delaware County

sheriff’s office.

The accident occurred on U.S. Highway 60, near the Wyandotte city limits, around 1:43 a.m., according to the OHP report, when Fields, for unknown reasons, lost control of the 1995 Chevrolet Camaro he was driving.

Trooper Bertram said the Camaro struck a road sign and went off the left side of the roadway, overturning two times before coming to rest on its top.

Fields was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident, the trooper noted in his report.

Officials confirmed the accident was still under investigation as of Sunday evening.

Fields, currently a member of the Drug Task Force Division, has worked as a law enforcement officer several years in Delaware County.