As if a police offer’s job is not dangerous enough, recently a 52-year old man from Alexandria, Virginia crashed head-on into a police cruiser in the early hours of the morning. Without warning, the car veered left and hit the police car, causing the other driver’s car to catch fire. The driver died at the scene of the accident.
Unfortunately, the police officer was trapped inside the police cruiser at the time of the accident. He suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries and was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Such accidents between civilian-driven cars and police cars are common occurrences in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Police officers often bear the brunt of injuries from such accidents. Generally, 31.5% of line-of-duty fatalities are caused by vehicle accidents. 16.5% of injuries are attributable to such vehicle accidents. Many are due to negligence on the part of civilian drivers, who don’t slow down sufficiently when passing an accident scene where police officers are present, zipping by cars pulled over to the side of the road during traffic stops and other careless behavior.
We here at the Law Offices of Michael A. Kernbach, P.C. have more than twenty-five years’ experience dealing with on-the-job injuries suffered by police officers. As a former police officer myself, I am keenly aware of the injuries police officers suffer in the line of duty and the toll such injuries take on the officer and his or her loved ones.
