Claim: Photograph shows police cruiser crushed between two trucks.
Status: True.
Example: [Collected via e-mail, March 2007]
Origins: On 5 September 2006, Indiana State Police trooper
scene depicted in the photographs displayed above.
Remarkably, Sgt. Kelly not only survived the crash, but he was able to get out of his patrol car and summon help on his cell phone. Even more remarkably, his injuries were relatively minor for such a horrific-looking accident: a fractured vertebra and several cuts and bruises. (Kelly underwent surgery to fuse his fifth and sixth vertabrae and returned to duty following four months of rehabilitation.)
The two truck drivers suffered only minor injuries, but the driver of the second rig was cited for failing to slow down or move to the left lane to avoid a stopped patrol car, following too closely, unsafe lane movement, and speeding, and county prosecutors filed charges of reckless driving and criminal recklessness against him.
This accident was, unfortunately, Sgt. Kelly's second such experience: He had also been injured several years earlier when another driver hit his cruiser while he was outside the vehicle checking on a motorist.
In December 2008, a jury found the driver of the tractor-trailer that hit Kelly's patrol car not guilty of charges of reckless driving:
That was the verdict issued by a six-member jury, who found Francisco But they did return judgments against him for four traffic infractions: unsafe lane movement, following too closely, failure to yield and speeding too fast to avoid a collision.
A semitrailer driver from Wisconsin is not criminally responsible for crashing into a state police cruiser that was stopped on Interstate 65, crushing the trooper inside.
Last updated: 5 December 2008
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