A Milwaukee County sheriff's deputy was hit in her squad car while securing the scene of an accident early Sunday, authorities said. It was the second time during the weekend that a driver hit a squad car.
About 12:30 a.m. Sunday, a suspected drunken 22-yearold man from Illinois was speeding south on I-43 at the Plainfield curve near the Mitchell Interchange when his car spun twice and hit a concrete barrier, sheriff's spokeswoman Fran Mc-Laughlin said. On impact, the barrier was pushed from the southbound to the northbound lanes.
The deputy called for backup to put up flares. She was putting the squad car, which had its emergency lights on, in a position to keep drivers from hitting the concrete barrier in the northbound lane shortly after 1 a.m. when her squad car was hit from behind by a car driven by a 44-year-old woman.
The woman, who wasn't injured, was ticketed for failure to move over, inattentive driving and not having insurance.
McLaughlin said the woman was not drunk.
The deputy later was checked at the hospital for neck pain.
The man from the initial crash was taken to the hospital with cuts on his chin and other minor injuries. He was subjected to a blood draw to test for alcohol and drugs. Police found marijuana in his car, McLaughlin said.
Saturday crash A second incident involving a sheriff's squad car occurred when deputies responded to a single-car crash on southbound I-894 at 2 a.m. Saturday.
While the car in the accident caught fire in the right distress lane, another vehicle spun out across from the initial crash and came to a stop facing oncoming traffic next to the center wall, authorities said.
While the driver walked across the freeway to the deputies, a Jeep Cherokee spun out toward the five people standing behind the squad at the first crash. Deputies pulled people over the median wall as they jumped to safety, and the vehicle crashed into the squad car just as they cleared the wall. That saved people from injuries, the sheriff's office news release says.
The squad car in the Saturday incident was destroyed. The squad from the Sunday accident still could be driven, McLaughlin said.
Copyright 2012, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)
Copyright, 2012, Journal Sentinel, All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2012 Journal Sentinel Inc.
