It remains a mystery at this hour why an Orange County sheriff's deputy on routine patrol drove his cruiser into a light pole along Marguerite Parkway near Vista Del Lago in Mission Viejo around 3 this morning.
The unidentified deputy was ejected from the car and suffered a head injury, according to a sheriff's department statement.
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Taken to Mission Hospital Laguna Beach in critical condition, the deputy was later upgraded to serious condition.
The male deputy, a 13-year veteran of the force, was later said to be “responsive, recognizing individuals who have come to visit him” in the hospital, according to a sheriff's spokesperson.
The department's Major Accident Reconstruction Team is investigating the single-car crash that resulted in no other injuries.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.