Dashcam video from Tuesday night shows a Virginia State Police trooper being struck after a suspected drunk driver hit her cruiser as she was talking with another suspected drunk driver during a traffic stop on Capital Beltway.
The trooper in the video, identified as C. Aziz, was conducting a traffic stop with “a sedan that had stopped in a northbound lane of I-495 near Exit 52 in Fairfax County,” police told the Daily Caller.
THIS is what impaired driving does. #VSP Trooper C. Aziz, amazingly, didn’t end up w/any broken bones, but she still has a long road to recovery after a DUI driver slammed into the back of her patrol car while she was stopped out w/a DUID driver on I495 in FFX Co. on 6/11/24 . pic.twitter.com/Lfb1fI8awl
— VA State Police (@VSPPIO) June 12, 2024
The video shows Aziz speaking with the stopped driver as cars and trucks are flying by her in the left lanes.
Then another suspected drunk driver’s car bounces off the tractor-trailer truck seen in the bottom right of the video sending Aziz’s cruiser into her. (RELATED: Video Captures Moment Car Smashes Into State Trooper And Pulled Over Vehicle)
“The sedan’s driver was still in the vehicle and was refusing to cooperate with the trooper to exit the vehicle and/or move the vehicle to a safer location on the shoulder,” police told the Daily Caller. “While the trooper was working to engage the individual, a Jeep Cherokee struck a tractor-trailer that had stopped due to the travel lane being closed by the sedan.”
In the video, Aziz can be heard screaming as she is hit by her car. Quickly, she gets up off the highway and the video shows her walking away from the front of her cruiser while talking on her radio.
“The trooper sustained minor injuries and was transported to Fairfax INOVA Hospital for evaluation,” police told the Daily Caller.
The original traffic stop driver, Erica D. Bernard, 43, from Albright, West Virginia, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of drugs, possession of a controlled substance and improperly stopping on the highway, police told the Daily Caller.
The second driver that ricocheted off the tractor-trailer, Joanna F. Hatch, 35, from Alexandria, Virginia, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, the police told the Daily Caller.