BOYNTON BEACH, Florida — As a car came barreling toward him, FHP Trooper Jeremy Medastin jumped up on the Interstate 95 median wall, just in time to avoid the brunt of the crash, his dashcam video shows.
But Medastin didn’t escape the Monday night crash in Palm Beach County unscathed. The car hit his legs as he hung off the wall to escape. The Florida Highway Patrol said it had “hydroplaned” across several lanes of traffic because of wet roads.
“This shows you how dangerous our job is,” said Alvaro Feola, an FHP spokesman. “Luckily he was able to jump and avoid more serious injuries.”
On Tuesday, FHP released the dramatic dashcam video that begins when Medastin responded to a three-vehicle crash in the rain just before 6 p.m. in the median of I-95, just south of Woolbright Road in Boynton Beach.
Medastin is wearing a bright yellow rain jacket. He walks back to his patrol car to fill out paperwork. Then he sees the car coming right at him.
FHP said 18-year-old Ian Carr of Boca Raton was heading south in a Toyota Prius in the far right lane and was “accelerating attempting to merge with traffic.”
That’s when the car “began to hydroplane on the wet roadway and began to spin in a counter clockwise direction,” FHP said.
The Prius, which was now headed east, hit the front of a Nissan Sentra and then continued into the shoulder on the side of the highway, where Medastin was walking.
After Medastin jumped up the wall, the Prius hit the wall a second time before coming to a rest nearby.
The video shows Medastin dangling from the wall after he was hit. At least two officers responded, and helped Medastin to his car. He was taken to Delray Medical Center for treatment, Feola said.
Carr was cited for driving too fast for the conditions. Troopers also noted in their report that the treads on his tires were low, which could have caused the car to hydroplane.
Feola said the message to drivers is “when the roads are wet, reduce your speed, increase following distance and ensure that your tires are in good shape.”
He added: “Drive responsibly.”
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