A Temple police drone flew through the windshield of Gurdeep Gill's Peterbilt tractor-trailer on Interstate 35 near West Nugent Avenue on June 2, cutting his face and sending him to the hospital. Months later, the city is fighting to keep the public from seeing exactly what happened.
Gill, a Canadian driver from Brampton, Ontario, was behind the wheel of a northbound tractor-trailer when the drone struck his truck, according to the Temple Daily Telegram. kdhnews.com pinpointed the collision at 2:36 p.m. that day. Newly released records indicated the incident occurred earlier than the time listed in the filed report, per the Telegram.
Emergency dispatch records described Gill as alert with a head injury, and it remained unclear whether glass or metal had entered his eyes, the Telegram reported. He did not lose consciousness, but he sustained head and facial injuries after the drone impact cut his face, according to the same reporting. Gill confirmed his own hospitalization and Canadian citizenship to kdhnews.com.
City Withholds Records, Trucker Plans Lawsuit
Temple interim City Attorney Charla Thomas referred requests for the police report and accident report to the Texas attorney general's office for a ruling, kdhnews.com reported. The Telegram has appealed the city's request for that ruling, seeking the collision report and related accident reports. Separately, the Telegram reported that Thomas requested a blanket block on a July records request, saying releasing responsive material could hinder the city's ability to provide an adequate defense.
The Telegram invoked Texas Transportation Code §550.065 while seeking the collision report and related accident reports. The FAA confirmed that no accident report had been filed with it, according to the Telegram. The Telegram also requested body-camera footage of officers at the scene but had not received a copy by press time.
Gill has retained a law firm that has already filed a governmental notice of liability claim against the city of Temple, according to cdllife.com. Gill now plans to sue over the incident, though details of the potential suit have not been released, the outlet reported.
Questions Over the Drone Itself
The Temple Daily Telegram reported that the drone's flight dashboard showed a 10:39 a.m. launch and a 21-minute flight along the southbound side of I-35. A damage value tied to the drone was cited in a report but not disclosed, per the Telegram.
KDH News separately reported that a records request sought a list of drones no longer in service since May 31; the list included a DJI Matrice 30T that had been out of service since early June for manufacturer repairs tied to a faulty antenna. The drone's connection to Gill's collision remains unclear.
Drone Program Expansion
Temple police plan to add two additional docking stations by December for the Drone as First Responder program.
Local radio station Lone Star 92.3 reported that during its first month, the pilot program dispatched drones to 61 calls for service, with an average arrival time of just over two and a half minutes. Drones reached scenes ahead of traditional patrol vehicles in 56% of those dispatched calls, and drone assistance allowed six incidents to be cleared entirely without deploying physical patrol units, the station reported.
Temple police said drone operators must hold and maintain a Federal Aviation Administration Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate, according to kdhnews.com's reporting. The department also said drone unit officers must train regularly in varied locations, settings and times of day, with that training meant to reinforce FAA requirements and department safety procedures.
Sydney McBride is Temple police's public relations coordinator.
Not an Isolated Incident Nationally
Temple's crash is not the only recent mishap involving a police drone-as-first-responder program. In Brighton, Massachusetts, a Boston Police drone crashed onto and damaged a parked Mazda 3 on September 3, according to the Boston Herald. An officer reported damage to the car's rear windshield and trunk area, and the crash came just six days after Boston Police had announced a Drone as a First Responder partnership with Motorola Solutions and BRINC, the Herald reported.
For Gill, the open questions remain the same ones the city has so far declined to answer in public records: what exactly caused the drone to collide with his truck, and why the agency flying it has resisted releasing its own reports on the matter.
