Pikesville, MD – Early one Saturday morning in late August, a Maryland State Police trooper’s vehicle was struck by a drunk driver along the side of Interstate 270 just south of Montrose Road.
The trooper was out of his vehicle, conducting a traffic stop around 6:45 a.m. when a Ford Fusion rear-ended his cruiser and the Honda Odyssey pulled over by the trooper. Neither the trooper nor the Honda driver was injured; however, 29-year-old Stephen Michael Shannon, the suspected drunk driver was taken to the hospital.
“Thank God our trooper wasn’t inside the vehicle,” said Maryland State Police Corporal Charles Stevenson. “He would’ve been seriously injured.”
According to police, Shannon refused a blood test and a breathalyzer. However, authorities believe that he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash.
Every day, an average of 28 people in the U.S. die in car crashes resulting from an alcohol-impaired driver. In 2014, 9,967 people were killed in drunk-driving accidents.
Other fatal impaired driving scenarios plaguing the U.S. today involve distracted driving and fatigue-related crashes, which kill about 3,100 and 1,500 people a year, respectively.
That particular day’s incident was the second time in the same week that law enforcement officers’ vehicles were struck by cars.
Two days prior, just before 6:30 p.m. two police cars were hit during an investigation of a separate accident also on Interstate 270. While assisting at the first accident, a Montgomery County police officer’s vehicle was struck by another car and when an additional trooper arrived on the scene, his car was hit as well. No one was seriously injured.
The state of Maryland has a “Move Over” law that requires drivers to change lanes if possible in order to allow police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and other first responders to work on the road. Unfortunately, many drivers aren’t aware of the law or they don’t notice the rescue vehicles until it’s too late.