WASHINGTON — A three-vehicle crash on Interstate 270 injured six, including a Maryland State Police trooper and two children, just before 7 a.m. Saturday.
Maryland State Police said the trooper was stopped in the left shoulder of the northbound main lanes conducting a traffic stop with another vehicle, just south of Shady Grove Road in Gaithersburg.
Witnesses told detectives that they saw a tan Lexus SUV veer from the travel lanes of the highway into the shoulder and into the back of the stopped cruiser. The cruiser then pushed into the stopped vehicle in front of it.
The trooper was inside the vehicle at the time of the crash and became trapped inside.
He had serious but non-life-threatening injures and had to be extricated from the vehicle, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue said. He was airlifted to Baltimore Shock Trauma for treatment.
The driver of the Lexus also had serious but non-life-threatening injuries, and she was taken to Suburban Hospital for treatment.
Because the stopped car in front of the police cruiser was also hit, the four people inside were taken to an area hospital as a precaution.
The northbound main lanes of I-270 were closed for roughly two and a half hours as crews cleared the scene and detectives investigated.
Police said they suspected the driver was driving under the influence of alcohol and that it was a factor in the crash.
Officials said the crash is still under investigation and charges are pending.