Rear-Ender Ends Alcova Area REDDI Stop

A Highway Patrol vehicle was slammed into from behind Friday evening during a REDDI stop near Alcova.

According to the Wyoming Highway Patrol report, the crash occurred about a mile north of Alcova just before 6:30 in the evening.

Patrol Sgt. Steven Townsend says the trooper had gotten out of his car to investigated the possibility of a drunken driver when the second vehicle, driven by 32 year-old Jeffrey A. Roberts of Rawlins, smashed into his parked patrol car traveling about 65 mph.

"The vehicle that hit the troopers car went around the trooper and the car that he had stopped, just narrowly missing both of them and then went off of the road ahead of them."

Townsend says the trooper wasn't injured, though he was sprayed with debris.

In the end, the initial REDDI report driver was not intoxicated, but Roberts has been charged with driving while under the influence and possession of a controlled substance.

Since 1999, nationally, 179 law enforcement officers who were stopped by the side of the highway have been fatally hit by passing drivers.