A Decatur County Sheriff’s deputy and an 11-year-old passenger were injured after they were involved in a crash near Albany, Ga., around midnight Tuesday, Sheriff Wiley Griffin said.

Deputy Ken Davidson was transporting an 11-year-old boy from Bainbridge to a mental health facility in Macon, Ga., when the crash happened on Georgia Highway 300, just northeast of Albany in Doughtery County.

“It was late, approximately midnight, and dark, when Deputy Davidson saw a man riding a bicycle in the middle of the highway,” Sheriff Griffin said. “He did everything he could to avoid hitting the man but lost control of his vehicle.”

Davidson’s patrol car struck a mailbox, went into a ditch and overturned at least once and hit an oak tree in a residential yard. The child was ejected through the patrol car’s rear windshield. The patrol car caught fire; Davidson, who had been wearing a seat belt, escaped, while a resident put out the fire with a fire extinguisher.

However, neither Davidson and the child were seriously injured, according to Sheriff Griffin. Davidson was taken to Phoebe Putney Hospital in Albany, Ga., and released later that night, while the child was transported to a children’s hospital in Macon, Ga., as a precaution, the sheriff said.

“The child had a bruise on his head and a bruise on his lung, but he is expected to be OK,” Griffin said.

Davidson, who has been a deputy approximately two to three years, handles most of the secure patient transports for the Sheriff’s Office, the sheriff said.