Drving While Not Intoxicated
DWNUI
You know this doenst get reported or calculated as a percentage of total accidents
Weekend crash leads to two collisions with passing motorists
Sean Garmire/The Times-Standard
Posted: 05/19/2009 01:15:21 AM PDT
As traffic slowed around a wreck along U.S. Highway 101 Saturday night, two traffic collisions occurred near the original incident, California Highway Patrol officials reported.
According to CHP Sgt. Doug Tupen, on Saturday night along Highway 101 north of Humboldt Hill Road, a driver reported to police they had been forced off the roadway and into a field along the highway by another driver.
A CHP officer responded to the scene and approached the vehicle, which was stopped in the field. At around 11:40 p.m., after the officer had been at the scene about 40 minutes, Tupen said a driver hauling a trailer approached the area. The truck driver reportedly diverted his attention to the wreck as he passed, allowing his vehicle to drift off the roadway and onto the highway shoulder. As the truck approached the CHP officer's patrol car parked on the roadside, the truck driver swerved to miss the car. According to Tupen, the truck did miss the CHP patrol car. However, the trailer struck the unoccupied patrol vehicle, spinning it 180 degrees.
The traffic officer was still at the scene of the original collision -- about 120 feet south of his patrol car -- and was not injured in the wreck.
Within two minutes, Tupen said another driver passing by the scene diverted their attention to the wreck and slammed into the car ahead as it slowed.
No one was injured in any of the collisions, and Tupen said so far, no citations have been issued, though the collisions remain under investigation by the CHP. Impairment was determined not to be a factor in the wrecks.
”This is why we like to encourage people to pay attention to their driving and not worry about what we're working on on the side of the road,” Tupen said. “This kind of collision is not uncommon. This is how most of our officers get seriously hurt or killed.”
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