Related: 7 tips for roadside officer safety
By Andria Simmons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A DeKalb County Police officer was recovering from injuries at Grady Hospital on Sunday after being involved in a motor vehicle accident on I-285.
Officer Dwight Green, a two-year veteran of the department, had stopped to investigate an abandoned vehicle on the side of I-285 East near Peachtree Industrial Boulevard shortly before 11 p.m. Saturday when a white sport utility vehicle struck his parked patrol car, according to Officer Marcus Hodge, spokesman for the DeKalb County Police Department.
The patrol car lurched forward and slammed into Green, who was standing in front of it, Hodge said. The officer was knocked to the pavement and lost consciousness.
An off-duty Barrow County Sheriff’s deputy who stopped to help called for assistance using the fallen officer’s radio, Hodge said. Green, 36, was listed in good condition at Grady Hospital Sunday night.
The driver of the SUV, 54-year-old Daniel Hariston, was hospitalized at Atlanta Medical Center with injuries that were not life-threatening. He has been charged with DUI, reckless driving, following too closely and violating the state’s new move-over law, which requires drivers to slow down and change lanes if they see a patrol car in the adjacent lane.
Copyright 2007 The Atlanta Journal Constitution