Скачать или смотреть Close Call: CPD officer, OSP trooper narrowly escape serious injury after crash on I-75

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - A Cincinnati Police officer and an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper are lucky to be alive after an early morning crash on Tuesday. The incident was caught on the trooper’s dash cam.

It happened on I-75 southbound around 2:00 a.m. between Mitchell Avenue and I-74.

There was a disabled car and the police officer had stopped to help. The trooper showed up shortly thereafter to help as well. Moments later, two cars crashed and one of them smashed into both cruisers.

“That sent both vehicles out of control and [one] struck the Ohio State Highway Patrol cruiser and the Cincinnati Police cruiser,” Lt. Scott Kuntz with the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.

There is no shoulder and nothing but a concrete barrier next to where the officers were. They had to make a split-second decision on what to do.

“The officers heard the commotion and made the decision to jump over the concrete wall to avoid being crushed between the vehicles and the wall,” Kuntz said.

Luckily, both officers made it over the wall but not without some injury. The state trooper fractured his kneecap, but he has been released from the hospital. The Cincinnati officer was unharmed.

“This was an extremely close call, and we’re very fortunate that both officers involved did not sustain very serious injuries,” Kuntz said.

The crash is under investigation and troopers are working to figure out who’s to blame for it and if any citations should be issued.

“There’s a slight curve where the accident took place and the view is partially obstructed by the concrete wall. So, as these vehicles come around the curve, they see the cruisers stopped in the right lane and we believe one [driver] overreacted and a collision took place that sent both vehicles out of control and struck the cruisers,” Kuntz said.

Troopers said you should always slow down when entering a construction zone because you have no room for error and, by law, you need to move over or at least slow down when passing stopped emergency vehicles on the highway.