Palm Beach Post
JUNIPER, Fla. — A Jupiter police officer was seriously injured early Sunday while on duty when the driver of a vehicle traveling alongside his patrol car on Interstate 95 fell asleep at the wheel, according to law enforcement officials.
Officer Jason C. Starks, 34, was taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach after the crash, which happened just after 4:30 a.m. on northbound I-95 just north of the Military Trail entrance ramp in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida Highway Patrol said.
The other driver, Steven Carl Klix, 30, of Stuart, was charged with failure to maintain a single lane, the FHP said. He was not injured.
Starks was released from the hospital Sunday afternoon, Jupiter Police Sgt. Scott Pascarella said.
Starks was driving back to Jupiter from the Palm Beach County Jail when the wreck occurred.
He had just dropped off someone after an arrest, Pascarella said.
According to FHP, Klix was driving north in the inside lane of I-95, and Starks was heading in the same direction, but in the inside center lane.
Klix fell asleep, and his 1999 Mercury Marquis drifted onto the left shoulder, hitting the concrete barrier wall and then veering into Starks’ lane, hitting the front of the 2012 Chevrolet Impala Starks was driving.
Both cars traveled across all lanes of traffic to the right, moving onto the grass shoulder. Klix’s car came to a rest there.
But Starks’ car overturned and hit a tree.
Both drivers were wearing seat belts, and neither appeared to have been under the influence of alcohol.
The Impala sustained an estimated $10,000 of damage and the Marquis $5,000, FHP said.
Starks, who has been with Jupiter police for about five years, is a road patrol officer and lives in Jupiter.
In 2011, he received a distinguished service award from the Safety Council of Palm Beach County, along with about two dozen other law enforcement officers and civilians from Palm Beach County.
Copyright 2013 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.