RIDGECREST — The driver of an overturned red sedan in Ridgecrest was so combative Friday that paramedics could not risk flying him to a regional medical center for his injuries, deputies said.

The car struck an oak tree Friday morning, flipped and landed just yards from the house of a Ridgecrest resident said Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy David Hedrick.

Hedrick’s deputy reported that the man driving the car ran a stop sign, plowed over a road sign on U.S. 84 and sped down Apple Street before striking the tree at approximately 10:30 a.m. Friday near the intersection of Apple Street and Vidalia Drive.

Hedrick said had the man not only struck a tree, the vehicle might have hit a house.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene and said they found Howard P. Button to be “extremely combative,” Hedrick said.

While attempting to administer medical attention to the man — who deputies say had a possible broken leg and an ear almost completely severed from his skull — Button allegedly punched a paramedic and had to be restrained.

When paramedics took the man to a helipad to transport him, Hedrick said the man began lashing out at paramedics again, making him too dangerous to put in a helicopter.

Deputies were preparing a toxicology kit Friday afternoon for Button, who Hedrick said had four prior DUI convictions.