WASHINGTON– A Maryland State Trooper was struck on the side of Interstate 270 in Montgomery County while doing a traffic stop Saturday morning.
This is the third state trooper struck by a car in less than a month.
Officer Marcus Holland, a two-year veteran of the force, was conducting a traffic stop on the right shoulder just north of Democracy Boulevard at approximately 3:30 a.m. He was seated in his patrol car with his emergency lights on when a 2005 Acura RSX slammed into the back of his cruiser. The driver, 21-year-old Steven Lomosbog Yu, is being investigated for drunk driving.
There was extensive damage to Yu’s car and the police cruiser as a result of the crash. Sgt. David Hooper says Holland suffered whiplash, back and neck pain. Holland and Yu were taken to the hospital and both were released shortly afterwards. The car Holland had initially stopped had just left the scene before the crash and was not involved.
Hooper says charges are pending and responding officers smelled alcohol on him. “The driver also indicated that he was operating his hand-held cell phone trying to get GPS coordinates,” Hooper says.
Holland is the third Maryland trooper to be struck during a traffic stop in less than a month.
On September 23, a College Park trooper was hurt in a hit-and-run in Prince George’s County. The driver was arrested on drunk driving charges and not following Maryland’s move-over law.
On September 28, two people were hurt when a drunk driver crashed into a police cruiser on the Capital Beltway near Suitland Road.
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