By Marisa Gottesman
Sun Sentinel
PALM BEACH, Fla. — When a drunken-driving suspect collided with West Palm Beach Officer Eric Evrley’s vehicle, the officer stepped out of his vehicle and summoned medical help via a dispatcher.
As Evrley walked toward the other vehicle, he wondered aloud why that driver drove into his path. “What the (expletive) is she doing?” Evrley asked. He later said he saw stars every time he moved his neck.
A police body-camera recording of the Sept. 17 crash was obtained by Sun Sentinel news partner WPEC-Ch. 12, showing the moment of the collision and the events that followed.
The other driver, Cynthia Osborne, 53, of West Palm Beach, was charged with DUI, driving without a license and refusing to submit to a blood test, authorities said.
Both Evrley and Osborne were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Evrley had his body camera rolling during the morning crash, which happened at the West Palm Beach intersection of Australian Avenue and Worthington Road.
The other car, driven by Osborne, made a left turn in front of Evrley, police said. The impact of the crash caused the airbags in Evrley’s patrol car to deploy. The video shows shattered glass strewn on the road.
Reacting to the collision, Evrley cursed and exited his car to approach Osborne. When Osborne opens her car door, she was partially nude. In the video, Evrley asked if she was OK, but also told her to “fix herself.” Osborne remained quiet as she covered herself.
The officer sat on the curb. And several witnesses checked on Evrley while he waited for paramedics to arrive.
While Evrley waited on a curb and chatted with several witnesses, he noticed the other driver still was sitting in her car, and it appeared she was about to put the car in reverse. The video showed Evrley approaching Osborne and asking if the car was off.
It was in reverse, so he asked her to put the car in park and remove the key from the ignition. Osborne handed over the keys, the video shows.
Evrley returned to the curb and said he was seeing stars every time he moved his neck. As he waited for the paramedics, a bystander asked him if he was a motorcycle cop. He replied he was a motorcycle cop, and that he would have died had he been riding his motorcycle.
“She would have killed me,” he said. “I’d have been dead.”
According to police, Osborne lacked a valid license and had an open bottle of wine in the car. Police said she refused to submit to a blood test.
One portion of the video, moments before the collision, showed the officer putting away his cellphone after scrolling through it and apparently making a call. The department allows such in-vehicle cellphone use, West Palm Beach spokesman Sgt. David Lefont said.
Osborne remained Friday at the Palm Beach County Jail, in lieu of $80,000 bail.
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