UPDATE: Near miss for Mountie, who dodges impaired driver
One Richmond RCMP officer was injured and two others narrowly avoided a similar fate during a routine traffic stop on Westminster Highway and No. 5 Road around 2 a.m. on Saturday.
Richmond RCMP Cpl. Sherrdean Turley said the injured officer had pulled over a vehicle, whose driver couldn't speak English and so wasn't following the officer's instructions to pull over to the right side. Turley said the traffic stop was conducted in the left turn lane.
The officer requested translation assistance, and a second RCMP cruiser arrived at the scene with two officers.
Just after the first officer sat down inside his vehicle, a car plowed into the rear passenger side of the police cruiser, and propelled the officer forward into the steering wheel and dashboard of the vehicle. He suffered a concussion and soft tissue damage.
The two other officers were standing outside their vehicle and somehow managed to avoid being hit, Turley said.
The injured RCMP officer is a four-year veteran, Turley said, and he was taken to hospital and released, and still remains away from work.
The officers from the second RCMP cruiser chased after the suspect vehicle, which fled the scene after the collision.
A short time later, the officers pulled over the suspect's vehicle, driven by a 28-year-old man from Vancouver who was arrested for impaired driving.
“In speaking with the injured officer I was told that if the car came along a bit earlier, the officer would have been run over” said Turley. “The officer had his emergency lights activated and it was a clear night so there should be no reason to not see the patrol car.”
The collision was also witnessed by others, who remained at the scene to talk to investigators.
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