Video shows SUV barreling into NJSP patrol car on Black Horse Pike
HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) -- Two New Jersey State troopers are out of the hospital after an SUV slammed into their patrol car during a traffic stop. The crash happened Thursday on Black Horse Pike in Hamilton Township, Atlantic County.
Workers at H. Carlson & Sons say the crash sounded like an explosion. It was captured on a camera and workers raced outside trying to help the troopers and a woman trapped inside her SUV.
"I guess God was on their side," Harry Carlson said. "I think two seconds earlier, it may not have been the same outcome."
Exclusive video shows the frightening moments when an SUV came barreling into a New Jersey State Police patrol car.
The two troopers were walking outside, conducting a traffic stop Thursday morning, and seconds later, they were knocked to the ground.
"I noticed one of the officers was down lying on the ground," Carlson said. "I went to him first, but somebody was already attending to him."
Carlson owns H. Carlson & Sons on the Black Horse Pike in Hamilton Township and he ran outside with his employees.
He says several drivers stopped to help one trooper on the ground complaining of shoulder and back pain as the other trooper and Carlson went to help the woman pinned inside this blue Ford Escape.
WATCH: @CBSPhiladelphia obtained exclusive video of an SUV slamming into a @NJSP cruiser on the Black Horse Pike Thursday in Hamilton Twp. Amazingly, the troopers survived and are out of the hospital. At 4:00 - hear from a Good Samaritan who says ‘God was on their side.’ pic.twitter.com/d7QcdA2ADt
— Ryan Hughes (@HughesCBS3) April 14, 2023
"She was all the way down about four feet from us," Carlson said. "It's not like we could reach in and she was just panicking."
Carlson spoke with the woman and tried to calm her down as his co-worker ran to get something to smash the windows open.
"I reached in with a big bar and I smashed her sunroof out," Carlson said, "and that opened up and allowed the air to come into her and that did calm her down at that point."
Carlson says it took crews an hour to rescue the woman. She was then taken by a medical helicopter to the hospital.
The state trooper was also loaded onto a stretcher and taken to an area hospital.
"This is just in our nature," Carlson said. "It was the way I was raised."
Carlson tells CBS News Philadelphia he wishes he could have done more. Now, he's hoping this video serves as a reminder to drivers to pay attention and remember New Jersey's law to safely move over when passing an emergency vehicle.
"People should watch this," he said, "and see exactly what does happen and can happen."
The woman who was trapped in her SUV remains in the hospital, state police said Friday.
The crash is still under investigation.
Both troopers are expected to be OK.