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Conn. trooper saves ‘distressed’ woman seen running across highway, officials say

A high-ranking state trooper traveling through the area was able to pull the woman away from oncoming traffic

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Lt. Col. J. Scott Eckersley pulls a distressed woman away from oncoming traffic in Old Lyme, Connecticut on August 12, 2020.

Connecticut State Police

By Christine Dempsey
The Hartford Courant

OLD LYME, Conn. — A member of the command staff of the Connecticut State Police kept a distraught woman from running into traffic on I-95 in Old Lyme Wednesday, state police said.

Lt. Col. J. Scott Eckersley was traveling through the area when 911 calls came in about a female running on the highway. He saw the barefoot woman and kept her from dashing in front of cars, they said.

Still pictures from body camera footage show the high-ranking trooper talking to the woman as she leans against a Jersey barrier and maintaining his grip on her hand as she tries to break away and head toward traffic.

“Fortunately, Lieutenant Colonel John Eckersley was traveling through the area on general patrol and able to safely and with confidence step into the high speed travel lane and pull the erratic and distressed female out of harm’s way, preventing her from being struck by oncoming traffic,” state police said in a summary of the incident posted on its website late Wednesday.

Eckersley is in charge of field operations at the Connecticut State Police.

This isn’t the first time state police top brass helped a distressed person on a highway. On May 27, Col. Stavros Mellekas – the highest ranked trooper in the state – stopped to help a distressed, naked man in the median on I-84, state police said at the time.

Mellekas, who was on his way to work, was the first trooper on the scene, they said.

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©2020 The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.)

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