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FORT LAUDERDALE - A Florida Highway Patrol trooper was hospitalized after a sport-utility vehicle sideswiped his patrol car, less than two months after he was featured in a traffic safety campaign to prevent such accidents.
Trooper John Baker, 38, was pulled over Monday on Interstate 95, writing a report in his patrol car with the emergency lights on, when a Ford SUV veered off the road and sideswiped the car, said FHP Lt. Roger J. Reyes.
The SUV swerved back into traffic and hit a Dodge Neon, then stopped on the shoulder, the FHP said.
Baker suffered a bump on his head, sore muscles and injuries from flying glass. Three passengers in the Dodge suffered minor injuries.
Baker and his 9-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, appeared at a July 1 news conference for the second anniversary of the state's "Move Over" law. The law requires drivers to move into other lanes or slow down when approaching emergency vehicles that are stopped on highways.
From 1996 to 2000, Florida drivers crashed into law enforcement vehicles stopped on roadways 1,793 times, causing five deaths and 419 injuries, according to the FHP.
The SUV driver, Stanley Midi, 23, of Lauderdale Lakes, was cited for failing to maintain a lane and for failing to obey the Move Over law, Reyes said.