GONZALES — A crash involving an Entergy truck and a city-issued SUV driven by Gonzales Chief of Staff Wade Petite has resulted in Petite receiving a summons for hit-and-run, officials confirmed. Petite, however, tells UWK he did not leave the scene.
The crash happened April 14 at around 5:15 p.m. in the City Hall parking lot on S. Irma Blvd. Gonzales Police responded to a reported hit-and-run involving a city-owned vehicle and were told Petite was the driver.
Officers later went to Petite’s home Tuesday night and issued him a misdemeanor summons for hit-and-run following their investigation.
Petite told UWK he had no intention of leaving the scene and spoke with the people in the Entergy truck.
“I spoke to the occupant, the passenger and driver of the other vehicle, the Entergy truck,” Petite told UWK. “I spoke to them for a minute. They had absolutely no damage. Their bumper – it’s a huge bumber – no damage whatsoever. I spoke to them, asked them the same question three times: ‘Everything’s good? Y’all don’t have any damage?’ They indicated ‘No’.”
Petite’s own SUV did have minor damage to his own bumper. He said he does not believe the situation qualifies as a hit-and-run, despite the GPD summons.
“It was not my intention to leave the scene of an accident, but I know I’m going to have to take care of this,” he said. “I’ve already reported the incident to the mayor and personnel. The officers I spoke to last night, I told them my version and they said that’s exactly what these guys said but when we left, it’s probably Entergy policy that they had to call their supervisor so that’s what happened.”
City of Gonzales policy states that any on-the-job accident must be reported to a supervisor within 24 hours. The policy also requires employees involved in accidents to undergo immediate substance abuse testing and prohibits them from driving themselves to the test.
Petite went home after the crash and was not tested until Wednesday morning around 9:30 a.m.
“It was after hours, so I made some phone calls and was not able to get our HR personnel,” he claimed. “We set it up as soon as we could this morning,” he said.
When asked whether he was under the influence at the time of the crash, Petite told UWK, “On May 6, I will celebrate 20 years of sobriety and nothing that happened yesterday evening in the parking lot of City Hall altered those plans.”
Download the Unfiltered with Kiran app from the Apple App Store and Google Play to stay updated on the latest news across the Capital area.
Support UWK and its mission to deliver The News You Deserve. Unfiltered. Become a monthly patron on Patreon today!
