Deputy ‘clipped’ by passing van while aiding crash, Florida cops say. See close call
A Florida deputy is lucky to be alive after a driver swiped him with their van as he was helping the victims of a crash, a scary video shows.
The deputy was standing on the side of a highway in DeLand at around 2 a.m. Feb. 24 following a traffic crash, according to a Feb. 25 Facebook post from the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.
He was talking with some of the victims of the crash, who were describing what happened and standing on the edge of the left-hand lane of the highway, a video shared by the sheriff’s office shows.
Then there is the sound of a car traveling past them and a gasp from one of the victims as the deputy falls forward, his body camera footage shows.
“Woah, woah, woah,” he yells out.
The deputy jumps on his radio as other deputies yell out to him.
“I just got hit by a car!” he says to dispatch.
The deputy laughs in disbelief as his fellow deputies ask if he’s okay, then ask which passing vehicle he thinks hit him.
The sheriff’s office said the deputy was “clipped” by the van as it passed in the lane closest to the patrol vehicles.
“That car hit your partner!” someone can be heard yelling in the background of the video.
The deputy tells his colleagues to stay at the crash site as he hops into his patrol vehicle and follows a white van.
He completes a traffic stop, and tells the driver of the van they hit him, to the surprise of the driver, the video shows.
“(Florida Highway Patrol) responded to this incident and found the driver at fault, issuing him several citations,” the sheriff’s office said.
The deputy was taken to the hospital for medical evaluation, but was cleared.
“This deputy is OK, but PLEASE use this as a reminder to slow down and move over for emergency vehicles,” the sheriff’s office said.
DeLand is about 40 miles northeast of Orlando.
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