MELBOURNE, Fla.,None — A Brevard County park ranger's truck was found crashed into a tree in Wickham Park Monday morning, Melbourne police said. Police said it looked like someone had driven the truck into the pine tree at 55 miles per hour.
Investigators said there was blood inside the truck, but the park ranger was not there. The ranger was then identified as 31-year-old Robert Triplett of Palm Bay.
Police said they searched the park Monday morning, called several hospitals, and ultimately found Triplett at a female friend's home on Sandpiper Lane, a few blocks away. They said he was cleaned up, but still bleeding.
"We were concerned obviously that he was injured and he might need help somewhere," police said.
Police said when they found Triplett, they could smell alcohol, but they didn't arrest him for DUI because they didn't find him until seven or eight hours after the crash. Police said they did not have evidence that Triplett was intoxicated at the time of the crash.
"We had no witness to the crash, and all we had to go on was his statements or the form he filled out indicating he was the driver at the time," police said.
It turns out police were already investigating Triplett for hitting a pedestrian a week and a half ago. Police said after they found Triplett's park ranger truck wrapped around the tree, and found his personal car, which he's accused of using to hit the pedestrian, at the office down the road, that they had enough evidence for an arrest.
Triplett was arrested for the hit-and-run with injuries at the corner of Wickham and Aurora that occurred on Dec. 10 and taken to jail on that charge. He was not arrested for crashing into the tree in Monday night's incident, police said.
Police did, however, cite him with careless driving for the Monday morning crash. Police also said they didn't cite him for leaving the scene of a crash because he left some paperwork inside the park office.
The county said it's investigating and Triplett has not been suspended or terminated.
WFTV is also looking into Triplett's driving record.