Pinellas sheriff’s deputy seriously injured in crash with tanker truck in Pasco

A Pinellas County sheriff’s deputy was seriously injured after crashing his marked patrol SUV into a tanker truck in Spring Hill on Tuesday, troopers said.

Deputy Dakota Dellechiaie was driving an agency-issued Chevrolet Tahoe east on Hudson Avenue about 5:20 a.m. as the driver of an AmeriGas Propane truck was backing across the eastbound and westbound lanes into a private driveway on the 15000 block of Hudson Avenue, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Dellechiaie‘s Tahoe crashed into the trailer and came to rest underneath it, troopers said.

Pasco Fire Rescue responded to the scene and pulled Dellechiaie from the cruiser, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.

The on-duty deputy was taken to Bayonet Point Hospital Trauma Center with very serious head injuries, the agency said. As of Tuesday morning, he was in stable condition.

Dellechiaie, 32, was hired in 2019 and is currently assigned to the Patrol Operations Bureau, according to the sheriff’s office. He and his wife have four children.

The driver of the propane truck, a 60-year-old Spring Hill man, was not injured.

Drivers should avoid Hudson Avenue for the next several hours while fire crews burn off the small amount of propane that had spilled from the tanker during the crash, troopers said in an update about 11 a.m.