Area police officer’s wife killed in wreck

The police department here is rallying around one of its own this week as he prepares to bury his wife, who was killed Sunday in a multiple-vehicle wreck on Interstate 75 near the Tennessee-Georgia border.

Officer Craig Polston, 47, and Anna Polston, 44, were traveling with her parents when the crash occurred, according to Beavercreek police Chief Dennis Evers and News Channel 2 in Chattanooga.

The TV station said that according to the Georgia State Patrol, a sports utility vehicle carrying the Polstons was in the left lane when a truck in the middle lane began to change lanes, veering left. The driver of the SUV swerved to avoid being hit and lost control, crossing over a guardrail and overturning in the median.

Anna Polston, the front seat passenger, was killed. Officer Polston and his wife’s parents were injured, Evers said Wednesday. Mrs. Polston’s parents were treated in Chattanooga and have returned to the Dayton area, Evers said.

The officer, who suffered bumps and bruises, is back home in Jamestown with the family’s three children and is expected to recover, Evers said.

Visitation for Mrs. Polston is 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Beavercreek Church of the Nazarene, on North Fairfield Road. The funeral is 10 a.m. Saturday at the church. Burial will be at Pleasant Hills Cemetery in Brookville, Evers said. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that donations on behalf of the children be directed to their church, New Life Worship Center, 27 E. Xenia Ave., Jamestown, OH 45335, where a fund has been set up in their name.

There has been no discussion about when Officer Polston, who has been with the police department since October 1991, will return to patrol duty, Evers said.

“We'll take care of our own and we'll do what is necessary to get him and his family through this," Evers said. "He and his family are all a part of our police department family. This is very unsettling for the entire police department family. We will rally around them."

The Chattanooga television station reported this week that the truck driver, 50-year-old Steven Rabideaux of Orange City, Fla., has been charged with second-degree vehicular homicide and improper lane change.

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