Go to the web site for the link to the video. The fact that he wasn't seriously injured or killed is just amazing.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,157042,00.html

LITTLE CANADA, Minn. — A sheriff's deputy helping a woman along a busy highway was slammed by a pickup truck but escaped with only minor injuries.

Video from a state patrol vehicle showed the truck clipping Ramsey County Deputy Glen Pothen's patrol car Wednesday, sliding at an angle and slamming into Pothen's back, with his head appearing to slam backward onto the hood of the truck.

The Minnesota State Patrol (search) released the video to remind drivers that it is state law to slow down and move over to other lanes of traffic when they see law enforcement officers along highways.

Pothen, 35, was treated at a hospital and released.

"When I saw the tape this morning, I already knew that the deputy had survived and in fact wasn't seriously injured, and my thought was, 'I'm watching a fatality crash,"' state patrol Capt. Jay Swanson told KARE-TV. "My thought was, 'In a couple days I'm going to be going to another funeral."'

The incident was being investigated. The driver of the pickup said authorities had seized his truck, but it was unclear if he would face any charges.

 

I never understand how, out of the entire nearly infinite expanses of freeway, you get so many people loosing control right where the cops are parked...

 

Thank God he was all right, a few bruises will heal.

 

I wonder what happened to the guy in the truck. Tickets, jail time, electric chair, a slap on the wrist?

 

I believe it's because people generally steer towards whatever it is they're looking at, whether they realize it or not.

On my fire department, we have a truck that has a very large arrow board attached to the back of it. We park that truck/arrowboard in whatever lane of traffic that an accident is in, well in advance of the accident scene. We also set up cones and other barriers and 'channeling devices' well before motorists even get to the truck with the arrowboard on it so that they have advanced warning that the lane is blocked ahead. So far, we've had that truck/arrowboard hit 3 times, one time totaling the truck. While that may not be a real good track record, we figure we're better off having them hit that, rather than plow into the accident scene itself, which used to happen before we had the arrowboard brainstorm.

The one thing we pound into the heads of all our personnel that operate on highway accident scenes is 'Never turn your back to traffic'. No matter how well the scene is protected, some idiot is bound to be where they shouldn't!

chaikwa.

 

"Target Fixation": a phenomenon where military pilots (and drivers) occasionally crash their planes (or cars) into an object because they are so narrowly focused on the target.

 

I have had that happen. While driving past a bunch of cows I get transfixed on one and then the memory of the scent of BBQ steak overwhelms me, into the ditch I go, through the fence and then BANG, I snap out of the trance to see some fresh ground beef on the hood. SWEET.

Thats why I always travel with a George Foreman Grill and a big inverter.



TiLt

 

ROTFLMAO because I can actually see you doing something like that.