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According to Virginia State Police Sgt. Rob Carpentieri, Mikel B. Elliott, 57, of Blacksburg was operating a UPS tractor-trailer when he struck the trooper’s cruiser on the southbound side of I-81 at mile-marker 201.7, which is just north of Fairfield, at approximately 6:47 a.m..

Virginia State Trooper P.C. Gardner, was parked on the right shoulder with his emergency lights activated. The UPS tractor-trailer ran off the road and struck the side of the trooper’s vehicle. The tractor-trailer then hit the guardrail and went over the embankment and jackknifed.

Sgt. Carpentieri said that just before the crash, Trooper Gardner heard the tractor-trailer driving over the rumble strips and he dove into the front passenger’s seat. The violator in which Trooper Gardner had stopped, had just pulled away prior to the accident.

Trooper Gardner was taken to Carilion Stonewall Jackson Hospital in Lexington with non-life-threatening injuries.

Elliott was not injured.

This makes the second Virginia State Police cruiser, which was parked on the shoulder, to be struck along Interstate 81 in the past month by a tractor-trailer.

On May 13, Virginia State Trooper J.H. Rasnick was sitting in his cruiser on the shoulder of northbound I-81 at the 162 mile-marker in Botetourt County when his vehicle was sideswiped by a tractor-trailer. Police are still searching for the suspected tractor-trailer, which failed to stop. Trooper Rasnick was also injured in that accident.

Virginia’s “Slow Down, Move Over” law requires drivers to change to another travel lane or to slow down and cautiously pass emergency personnel stopped on the side of the road. Violation of the law carries a punishment of up to $2,500 fine and/or 12 months in jail. For more information regarding the Move Over law, brochures and public service announcements, visit the Virginia State Police Website at http://www.vsp.virginia.gov.

Photo courtesy of Virginia State Police

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