Keys deputy endures hours of surgery to save leg after being pinned by cars due to drunk driver, cops say
Doctors performed surgery for more than eight hours Thursday to try to save the leg of a Florida Keys deputy who became trapped between his patrol car and another vehicle two days earlier after a woman who police say was heavily intoxicated slammed her car into a traffic stop.
While the recovery process could take months or years, the surgery appears to be a success, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay told the Miami Herald.
“He came out of it well. They’re trying to get the blood flowing throughout the leg,” Ramsay said. “They’re confident in his recovery aspects. We’re hopeful he’ll make a speedy recovery and get back to the job he loves.”
The incident unfolded around 10:40 p.m. Tuesday at mile marker 87 on U.S. 1 in Islamorada in the Upper Keys, where Deputy Julian Garcia pulled over a Ford Fusion driver who had an arrest warrant for failing to make a court appearance, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report and press release issued by the sheriff’s office.
While the deputy and the man were standing on the side of the highway next to the cars, a Toyota Prius driven by 26-year-old Alexandra Baraga crashed into the patrol car, according to the FHP report. The impact caused the patrol car to lurch forward.
Garcia pushed the man he was questioning out of the way, but Garcia became trapped between his patrol car and the Fusion, Trooper D.J. Schlosser wrote in his report.
Deputies freed Garcia, 26 — who has served with the sheriff’s office since February 2022 — and applied a tourniquet to his left leg, law-enforcement sources said.
Monroe County Fire Rescue’s helicopter ambulance flew Garcia to Jackson South Medical Center in Miami-Dade County. The man Garcia pushed out of the way, Andrew Gibson, 20, of Homestead, was taken to Mariners Hospital in Tavernier for treatment of minor injuries, according to the report.
After Gibson was discharged from the hospital early Wednesday morning, he was booked into a county jail on the failure-toappear charge. He was released after posting his $2,000 bond, according to jail records. He could not be reached for comments.
According to the sheriff’s office, Baraga had a blood alcohol level of
.310, which is almost four times the legal limit. Trooper Schlosser wrote in his report that she voluntarily submitted a blood sample. He said she smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes and her speech was “slurred and thick tongued.”
She faces one count of felony driving under the influence and four misdemeanor counts of the same charge. Baraga was released at 9 p.m. Wednesday from county jail in Key West, where she was being held on a bond of $95,000. She could not be reached for comments.
Her first scheduled court appearance is April 23.
Ramsay said the incident highlights the importance of Florida’s move-over law, which requires drivers approaching police and other emergency vehicles parked on the side of the road with their overhead emergency lights flashing to either move over a lane or to slow down to 20 mph less than the posted speed limit.
“This is exactly what the move-over law was designed to prevent,” he said.