Deputy breaks hip, leg while sledding with kids during winter storm

GASTONIA, N.C. (WBTV/Gray News) - A Gaston County sheriff’s deputy had to be hospitalized over the weekend after being injured in a sledding accident.

Sgt. Casey Tignor broke his hip and leg on Sunday while he was sledding and playing with his kids in the snow during last weekend’s storm.

A father of four boys, he did what most dads would do in the snow: he grabbed a sled from the garage, took his boys outside and headed for the biggest hill in the neighborhood.

“Well, all my boys were sledding around everywhere, and Casey was like, ‘They’re not going to beat me,’” Courtney Tignor, the deputy’s wife, said.

But what was meant to be a fun family day on the sleds quickly turned into a nightmare.

“It was too icy, and he got going too fast,” Courtney Tignor said. “He went to turn a little bit ... it did not. He thought that when he bailed off the sled, he would stop, but considering it was ice, he did not. He wrapped his body around the pole that was at the end of the hill.”

Courtney Tignor said she knew her husband had broken something the moment she heard the impact.

“We heard it,” she said. “It was a metal pole. I thought he hit his head.”

Thankfully, it wasn’t his head, but the deputy still had to be taken to the hospital, where doctors determined the 16-year veteran had broken his pelvis and suffered a fracture below the knee.

“They gave us an estimate, three to six months, heavy on the six-month part,” Courtney Tignor said. “Lying in bed is killing him. He is upset that this happened, but we know freak accidents happen, and he’s OK.”

The deputy’s wife said the family has been overwhelmed by the support they have received and thanked everyone, especially the doctors and nurses at CaroMont Hospital, for their care.

Loved ones have set up a GoFundMe in Casey Tignor’s name while he begins his monthslong recovery.