Bourne town clerk hospitalized with injuries from Friday crash
BOURNE — Town Clerk Barry Johnson spent the weekend in St. Luke’s Hospital Trauma Center in New Bedford after he was injured in a Friday morning crash with an SUV driven by a state police civilian employee.
“I’m on the shelf … for a while,” Johnson said Sunday afternoon from his hospital bed. “The airbag went off, but that probably saved me; though it did apparently cause some injuries itself.”
Johnson, 79, said he will not need surgery to repair his numerous injuries, which include damage to a knee, two broken ribs, flesh torn from a hand and forearm as well as what he described as a severe blow to the forehead.
On Friday just before 9:45 a.m., the 2005 Jeep Liberty Johnson was driving north on Clay Pond Road — on his way to town hall in Buzzards Bay — collided with a 2013 Ford Escape at the intersection of Clay Pond and County roads, according to David Procopio, state police director of communications. The Escape was traveling south on Clay Pond Road prior to the collision.
"As the Escape proceeded into the intersection to turn left, its driver’s side was hit by the oncoming Jeep. Both vehicles were towed from the scene," Procopio wrote in an email to the Times.
The Escape was an unmarked Massachusetts State Police vehicle operated by a 64-year-old male civilian state police employee performing a job duty, Procopio wrote. He was brought to Falmouth Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, he wrote.
"The operator of the Escape did not come to a complete stop at the stop sign at the end of Clay Pond Road," Procopio wrote. The state police issued a civil citation for a stop sign violation to the civilian employee, who was alone in the vehicle at the time of the crash.
Barry Johnson headed to acute-care rehabilitation facility
Johnson said he will recuperate at an acute-care rehabilitation facility when he leaves St. Luke’s.
“Somewhere,” he said. “I don’t know where.”
He was experiencing severe discomfort and pain on Sunday, especially due to the broken ribs. But his sister had visited, he said, and he had read the Cape Cod Times on Sunday morning.
Johnson began his political career in the early 1970s, winning a selectman term after working as a teacher in Mashpee and serving on the Bourne Fire Department call force in Buzzards Bay. He also served as a reserve Bourne police patrolman.
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His later public service went on to include a stint as the Oak Bluffs town manager and Barnstable County administrator before he was elected town clerk. He is the current general manager of the Bourne Recreation Authority.
Last week, he had been preparing to discuss with state transportation officials the planning for the new Bourne Bridge and its likely impacts on the Scenic Park campground north of the canal.
Johnson chairs the Community Preservation Act and Open Space Committees, which are preparing articles for the May 1 town meeting Warrant. The local election time in Bourne also nears, the administration of which falls to his office.
Massachusetts State Police are investigating the accident.
Staff Writer Anne Brennan contributed to this report.
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Bourne Town Clerk Barry Johnson hospitalized with injuries after crash
