Nevada City police officers respond to bear-car collision

Two Nevada City police officers are recovering at home after they were struck by an accused drunk driver on Highway 49 Sunday morning. It happened at 12:30 a.m. on Highway 49 near the Broad Street on-ramp. The suspect, 28-year-old Geoffrey Rodgers, is in the Nevada County Jail on $75,000 bond. The two officers responded to a 911 call that a driver on the highway had struck and killed a bear. They stood in the roadway and used flares to block a lane as the bear's body and mangled car lay in the roadway. Then, police say, the suspect failed to stop and ran into the officers, knocking them unconscious. Nevada City's Constitution Day parade may have been canceled on Sunday if the accident involving the officers had turned out differently. “It's unbelievable that they're going to be OK, that they're going to be released from the hospital and they're going to be OK,” Neeraj Ehradwaj said. Police Chief Dan Foss said you never want to get a call like that. Foss said it was a chaotic scene and he didn't know what to expect after hearing that two of his officers were lying unconscious in the middle of Highway 49. “All we knew was that two officers had been hit by a vehicle on the highway, so obviously we're assuming high speed,” Foss said. “We knew it was a vehicle versus pedestrian, and the pedestrian was my officers.” Foss said while investigating a crash in which a bear was struck and killed by another driver, Rodgers arrived at the scene. With police lights flashing and flares on the ground, he continued driving, police said. “It was a driver driving under the influence of alcohol. He blew through the flares and drove right through them,” Foss said. “He was well over the legal limit and struck both of our officers.” A third officer was already en route to the call about the bear crash and drove to the scene about 20 seconds after the driver allegedly struck his colleagues. “From the call I received in the middle of the night to less than 24 hours later that they are home and recovering, I'm just very fortunate that we're dealing with this circumstance and having this interrogation and not something else,” Foss said. One officer quickly regained consciousness and called for help. The other was taken to the hospital by MedFlight. Both have been released and are recovering. The police force is comprised of just 13 officers, including the police chief. He said other agencies have offered to help. Rodgers is charged with drunken driving. The California Highway Patrol is investigating.