A Selma Police Department car struck the Old Live Oak Cemetery wall in a one-car accident Tuesday morning.

The officer was responding to a call about a man slumped over his steering wheel on Medical Center Parkway around 5:45 a.m.

In the process, the officer’s car veered off the road, struck a pole and crashed through the cemetery’s brick wall along West Dallas Avenue, according to Selma Police Chief William Riley.

Riley said the officer was “OK” but was sore following the accident.

“Regardless of what the call for service is, you’ve got to get there, in order to help, in a safe manner,” Riley said. “You defeat the purpose if you get in an accident or something — because now we have to turn around and send someone to your location to assist you.”

The Selma Police Department is currently following standard protocol for when an officer is involved in an accident. The department filled out an accident report and will conduct an internal investigation.

“We’ll wait until the accident report is fully completed, and then the supervisor will review it and see what was the cause of the accident,” Riley said. “Once he reviews it and does his investigation, then he will make a recommendation to me as to what he feels we should do to proceed.”

Tuesday was not the first time when a vehicle has crashed through the brick wall surrounding the cemetery. It’s happened numerous times over the years, and four times in 2014, according to John Coon, Old Live Oak Cemetery secretary.

“We just deal with it as it comes up,” Coon said. “There is a limited supply of those blocks, and we have to use what we can because those blocks are hard to come by. They don’t make them anymore.”

The cemetery has not yet learned how much it will cost to repair the wall, but previous accidents have cost approximately $2,000. If a private individual is responsible, his or her insurance company covers the cost, Coon said. The wall is normally repaired a month following the accident if not sooner, according to Coon.