Sleeping Florida beachgoer is run over by sheriff’s deputy’s truck

Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Miramar Beach, Fla., where sunbather Jessica Nystrom, 21, received tire marks on her body after an officer accidentally drove his patrol truck over her shoulder on Tuesday.

PUBLISHED: May 31, 2013 at 12:00 p.m. | UPDATED: January 10, 2019 at 6:08 a.m.

A sleeping sunbather was seriously injured after being run over by a cop car on a Florida beach.

Jessica Nystrom, 21, was left with tire marks across her body after an officer accidentally drove the truck over her shoulder on Miramar Beach, near Panama City, at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Deputy Chad Biernacki, 30, had just ticketed a group of underage drinkers when — driving off — he felt a “slight bump” and heard a woman curse.

Getting out of the truck he saw two women, one of whom, Nystrom, had a tire mark across her right shoulder.

She had been asleep for 20 minutes and did not wake up until being hit. Police said she had not been drinking.

Florida Highway Patrol investigators found Biernacki was at fault for the accident.

Deputy Chad Biernacki, who ran over Jessica Nystrom while she was sleeping on Miramar Beach in Florida, was honored last year for saving a 6-day-old child who was struggling to breath.

But he claimed that at no time did anyone warn him that he was going to hit someone.

Nystrom, of Destin, was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital. She was released late Wednesday.

Biernacki was tested for alcohol immediately after the accident and tested negative, reports the NWFDailyNews.com.

Walton County Sheriff’s spokesman Maj. A.J. Smith admitted he’d never heard of anything like it in his 15 years on the job.

“You can never train too much when you are dealing with high-liability areas like operating a vehicle, especially when it is in crowded and congested areas like the beach,” he added.