LEXINGTON, Va. — A Virginia State Police trooper was injured when a tractor-trailer hit his parked cruiser on Interstate 81 in Rockbridge County.
Sergeant Rob Carpentieri says trooper P.C. Gardner heard the UPS truck drive over the rumble strips just before 7 a.m. today and dove into the passenger’s seat moments before the truck hit his cruiser. The tractor trailer then hit a guardrail and went down an embankment.
Gardner was taken to Carilion Stonewall Jackson Hospital in Lexington with non-life-threatening injuries.
The truck driver, 57-year-old Mikel Elliott of Blacksburg, was not injured. He was charged with reckless driving.