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ATLANTA POLICE OFFICER SUFFERS INJURIES IN AUTO ACCIDENT


Ironically, while investigating a car accident in Atlanta, a police officer suffered an accident of his own. The incident occurred in the early morning hours of Jan. 2 when the officer was at the scene of an accident that occurred in the westbound lanes of I-20. While the officer was sitting in his patrol car, the auto accident occurred.

A vehicle hit the patrol car from behind and pushed it 100 feet upon impact. The officer was treated at a local hospital for back pain and was later released. The driver and passenger of the other vehicle were examined at the scene.

The driver faces a variety of charges, including speeding, driving an unsafe vehicle, operating a motor vehicle without insurance and violating the Move Over Law. He is now awaiting trial in the Atlanta City Jail.

Auto accidents are typically caused by negligence. In most car accidents, one of the drivers is speeding, disobeying traffic laws, fatigued or distracted by cell phone use. Because the police officer was pulled over in the far left lane and had he blue lights activated on his patrol car, there is no reason why the other vehicle could not have reasonably avoided the accident.

An Atlanta auto accident lawyer will likely agree that the other vehicle should be held liable for the car accident. The person who hit the vehicle from behind is held liable in almost all rear-end accidents. In addition, there is no really anything else that the police officer could have done to avoid the accident — especially since he had the lights on to warn other vehicles. In cases, like this one, where a driver is injured because of another’s negligence, that driver may be entitled to compensation.

Source: CBS Atlanta, “Atlanta police officer struck while investigating accident,” Mandi Milligan, Jan. 2, 2012