MORAINE — A new video released by the Moraine Police Department shows a car crashing into a parked police cruiser and brings into question the dangers of reckless driving.
Around 2 a.m. on Sunday, a Moraine Police Officer was parked on the side of Northbound I-75 while he was helping someone else on the interstate.
The Officer had parked his cruiser behind an ambulance to protect the vehicle, and when he was walking back to his cruiser another car crashed into the back of the cruiser.
Captured on both the Officer’s body cam and the cruiser’s dash cam, you can see the officer begin walking back to his cruiser.
The ambulance and the cruiser were in the right lane and the oncoming driver could be seen not attempting to move over or slow down.
The oncoming driver crashed into the back of the police cruiser. No one was injured in the crash.
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News Center 7′s Mike Campbell talked to people in the Miami Valley about the dangers officers face on the roadways, many of them believed the blame was on reckless drivers.
“No, I think it’s a lot of distracted driving these days, so, absolutely not,” Shirley Collier, who drives on I-75 every day, said when asked if she felt that people paid attention on the road.
Collier said she knows it is the law to move left anytime you see emergency vehicles parked on the right side of the road, especially on the freeway.
She acknowledges that it isn’t always easy but it’s still important.
“It’s not [easy] but it not only puts the officer but the person that’s pulled over in danger,” Collier said.
Another driver, Glenn Hofsiss, who moved to Dayton after living in Georgia for 30 years, says that people won’t give emergency vehicles space on the roads.
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“No, they won’t yield, they won’t move over,” Hofsiss said.
Hofsiss said Ohio drivers are much more aggressive.
Even though traffic is heavy in Moraine all the time, many people say reckless drivers are the ones that make them want to stay off the freeway.
In the case of the crash involving the cruiser, police said the driver was not only driving recklessly, but they believe he was also under the influence and are moving forward with a DUI investigation.
Drivers say we all have to take safety seriously.
“The roads here are pretty decent but the drivers are reckless, I don’t understand why,” Hofsiss said.
The suspected OVI driver was not seriously hurt, and neither was the officer, but that’s likely because he was about six steps from getting back in his cruiser to finish a report.