A Colorado State Patrol (CSP) trooper jumped off a bridge to avoid being struck by his own patrol vehicle over the weekend after a suspected drunk driver crashed into the trooper’s car.
A dashcam video shows trooper Kevin Bagley leaping over a railing before falling 30 feet onto a river bank early Saturday morning on Interstate 270 in Adams County in Colorado.
CSP officials said troopers were on the interstate responding to a crash when two subsequent crashes occurred. First, a Jeep struck the side of a parked, unoccupied CSP cruiser at a high rate of speed. The driver of the Jeep was subsequently arrested on suspicion of DUI.
Roughly 45 minutes after the Jeep crash, another driver crashed into the scene while speeding.
CSP officials told Storyful that the driver in the final crash ran over multiple traffic cones in the right lane that were positioned to warn oncoming traffic.
That driver, Cesar Ayala Manriquez, then swerved to avoid oncoming vehicles and Bagley leaped backward over the railing to avoid being hit.
Bagley suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries and was discharged from the hospital the day after the crash, CSP officials said.
Manriquez sustained injuries during the crash and was also taken to the hospital and discharged shortly after. He is facing a vehicular assault-DUI charge.
In a press conference Monday, CSP chief Matthew Packard said CSP patrol vehicles have been struck by drivers 12 times so far this year.