Jeep hits Illinois State Police car, IDOT truck on Dan Ryan Expressway
CHICAGO (CBS) -- An Illinois State Police trooper was injured when a drunk driver crashed into a squad car and an Illinois Department of Transportation worker's truck early Monday on the Dan Ryan Expressway, police said.
Police said the trooper and an IDOT worker were blocking two lanes of the southbound Dan Ryan near 63rd Street around 2:45 a.m., due to an earlier crash, when a passing Jeep hit the trooper's squad car and the IDOT truck.
The trooper and IDOT worker were inside their vehicles at the time.
The trooper and the Jeep driver were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. The IDOT worker also was injured, but did not go to the hospital.
The Jeep driver, 22-year-old David C. Walker, was ticketed for failure to yield to a stationary emergency vehicle, driving under the influence of alcohol, improper lane usage, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, driving without insurance, and driving on a suspended license.
Under what's known as Scott's Law in Illinois – named after Chicago Fire Department Lt. Scott Gillen, who was killed by a drunk driver at a crash scene in 2000 – drivers are required to slow down and move over when approaching any vehicle, including an emergency vehicle, that has its emergency or hazard lights flashing.
Illinois State Police said five troopers have been injured this year, in a total of 12 crashes in which drivers violated Scott's Law. Last year, there were 21 such crashes in Illinois, with seven troopers injured.