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Mikel Bertell Elliott, 57, of Blacksburg was originally charged with reckless driving following the June 16 accident, which occurred on Interstate 81 near Fairfield. In court, the judge at Rockbridge General District Court amended the charge to improper driving and fined Elliott $250.

According to the accident report, Virginia State Trooper P.C. Gardner was sitting in his cruiser at 6:47 a.m. finishing up a traffic stop. With emergency lights activated, his silver Chevrolet Impala was parked in the right shoulder of the southbound lanes of I-81 at the 201.7 mile marker. 

The violator had just pulled away and was merging into traffic when Trooper Gardner heard the sound of tires on the shoulder’s rumble strips. When he looked into the rearview mirror, he saw a tractor-trailer heading towards his patrol vehicle. With only seconds to spare, the trooper jumped across his front seat to the passenger side of his car as it was hit by the tractor-trailer.

The driver of the tractor-trailer, Mikel B. Elliott, then lost control and the tractor-trailer went through the guardrail and down an embankment off the right side of the Interstate. The tractor-trailer jackknifed and came to rest against the embankment.

Elliott was not injured in the crash. Trooper Gardner was transported by ambulance to Stonewall Jackson Hospital in Lexington with non-life threatening injuries. He was later released from the hospital.

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