A quick-thinking Sully District Station police officer is lucky to have not sustained serious injuries after an out of control motorist crossed a grass median and crashed into both his police car and another car during a traffic stop on Monday.
The full incident was captured on the police officer’s dashcam, showing the scale of destruction and how the unnamed officer escaped significant injuries thanks to their quick reflexes.
Operating in Fairfax County, Virginia, the officer pulled over a car for speeding on the Fairfax County Parkway on Monday morning local time.
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The officer and the driver of the speeding BMW M3 were both taken to hospital with minor injuries.
Video of the incident shows that a car travelling the opposite way loses control by itself, slides backwards through the grass median, and collides first with the pulled-over car and then the police car.
Initially positioned at the passenger side of the pulled-over car, the officer sees the oncoming car early and turns to run towards his police car. If the officer had remained where they were, they would have been pinned between the pulled-over car and the metal barrier.
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Instead, the officer was swiped by the sliding car. All of those involved in the wreck, including the officer, sustained only minor injuries. After falling over during the crash, the officer is able to get up straight away, hop over the fence, and check on the occupants of the other car.
“It’s just miraculous that we’re not talking under different circumstances,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis told the Washington Post. “By all accounts, this should have resulted in much worse outcomes than it did, so thank God for that.”
“If he would have frozen […] he likely would not have survived that impact. He moved in the right place at the right time for that split second.”
Stuff
The BMW M3 involved in the crash was similar to this 2015 model.
The driver of the car that caused the crash was a 17-year-old. According to authorities, the teenager was travelling over 120mph (193kph) before losing control on the right-hand bend. They have been charged with reckless driving.
The 17-year-old was driving a BMW M3; a formidable performance car powered by a twin-turbo 3.0-litre inline six producing 317kW of power and 550Nm of torque.
Local authorities noted that speeding amongst teenagers has been increasing in the region, telling media that teenage driver citations are up 62% year-on-year. Tickets for violating signs or signals are up 98%, and tickets for distracted driving are up 181%.
