A trooper with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol narrowly averted harm, or worse, on January 18 after a collision throughout a visitors cease on Interstate 40. Trooper Jesse Gregory had pulled over the motive force of a Mercury Mariner and was in the course of conducting the routine cease when a Lexus GX 470 touring at freeway speeds veered into the shoulder and crashed immediately into the Mariner.
The power of the affect pushed Trooper Gregory onto the bottom and brought about the Lexus SUV to rollover not less than as soon as. The Mariner, however, limps ahead a number of ft with its driver aspect smashed-in and particles raining outward. In the sprint cam footage — initially shared by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and republished by ABC — we will make out the GX 470 tumbling over after it barrels into the rear finish of the Mariner whereas the trooper rolls onto his ft:
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol took to social media to share footage of the crash, captioning its Facebook put up with a warning and including the next assertion:
This video is tough to observe. It is the sprint digital camera from final Thursday, January 18, when Trooper Jesse Gregory #362 was struck by a driver on I-40 at Cimarron Road. He was chatting with the motive force of his visitors cease when one other car bumped into them.
We present this video as a graphic reminder of the implications of distracted or impaired driving and the significance of the decelerate, transfer over legislation. We are in the course of a distracted driving emphasis proper now in honor of Trooper Nicholas Dees, who misplaced his life within the line of obligation after being struck by a distracted driver.
Luckily, Trooper Gregory is predicted to be okay. In reality, all three individuals concerned on this incident have been handled and launched.
Our investigators are trying into the reason for this crash and the investigation is ongoing.
Trooper Gregory is doing an interview with KWTV – NEWS 9 . It is scheduled to air tonight at 10.
Trooper Gregory sustained no main accidents within the crash, having suffered only a “relatively minor injury to his left arm,” per ABC7. The two different drivers concerned within the collision are likewise in good well being.
The trooper reminded drivers to please decelerate once they see law enforcement officials within the midst of a visitors cease on the aspect of the highway. Indeed, slowing down and shifting one lane over is customary follow for motorists who observe the police conducting a visitors cease, and in lots of states it’s essential to accomplish that by legislation.
It’s unclear what led the Lexus GX to collide into the Mercury Mariner, nevertheless it’s doable that the motive force of the Lexus miscalculated their trajectory as they took the exit on I-40 that’s seen within the sprint cam footage. The OHP trooper says he didn’t hear the Lexus driver brake. The investigation continues to be ongoing.
Trooper Gregory advised KWTV reporters the dramatic crash is the second such collision in a row in the identical metropolis inside the span of a month. An analogous crash occurred on January 5 inside “two or three miles,” in keeping with Gregory, who was the primary to answer the crash the place one other trooper was badly injured. Gregory goes on to say that second crash and close to miss is “hopefully the scare of [his] career.”
Source: jalopnik.com