Injured Aquinas coach, wife return home after crash that also killed 1

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - We’re told Aquinas High School Head Football Coach James Leonard and his wife have returned home from the hospital after being injured in a crash Saturday night.

Their child was also injured in the wreck at Wrightsboro Road and Troupe Street but has already returned home.

Their vehicle was hit by a car driven by a man fleeing police. That driver died.

“When you think of Aquinas football, you think of James Leonard,” said Joe McBride, athletic director at the private school. “His impact has been pretty far-reaching with his players and just the student body population in general.”

McBride said that after seeing pictures from the wreck and talking with Leonard, “it’s a miracle they’re alive – I don’t know how else to say it.”

McBride said Leonard’s “dedication is to his family first, but he’ll be right behind that with his football boys.”

Spring football starts in just over a week, and McBride says he doubts Leonard will miss any practices.

Leonard and his wife were in intensive care for a time with rib fractures as well as liver and spleen lacerations.

Leonard’s father said the Georgia State Patrol said the coach’s Toyota 4Runner was T-boned at over 90 mph.

The Augusta Fire Department and Emergency Management Agency says it was a two-car crash and that one of the cars burst into flames. The other rolled onto its side.

The Richmond County Coroner’s Office says 50-year-old Raymond Allen died at the scene.

Authorities say Allen “actively fleeing a marked Richmond County Sheriff’s Office vehicle” when the crash occurred. He was on Wrightsboro Road and ran a red light and hit the Leonards’ car and it flipped. Allen’s car is the one that caught fire.

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