A Florida Highway Patrol trooper was killed when he crashed into a tractor-trailer during a chase early Friday.
Shortly before 3 a.m., Trooper Zachary Fink had spotted a white Kia speeding and driving recklessly in Port St. Lucie, WFLA-TV reports. Fink pursued the vehicle onto Interstate 95, but when the car got on the interstate, the suspect abruptly turned the vehicle and began driving in the wrong direction.
Fink tried to keep pursuing the vehicle by also heading in the wrong direction, but he collided with a tractor-trailer as he was turning. The crash killed the tractor-trailer's driver, and Fink died after he was airlifted to the hospital.
The suspect kept traveling in the wrong direction until he slammed into a tree. He then fled on foot and was apprehended shortly after 8 a.m. following a manhunt.
“Trooper Fink is a hero,” said Dave Kerner, director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. “Trooper Fink died in the line of duty. As his stepmother relayed to me, since he was 6 years old, all he wanted to do was help people.
Fink, 26, had been with the highway patrol for three years. He is survived by his fiancée and his father and stepmother.
