Pasco Deputy’s Cruiser Struck by Hit-And-Run Driver

LAND O’ LAKES, FL — A 67-year-old New Port Richey man faces charges after the Florida Highway Patrol says he struck a Pasco County deputy’s cruiser Friday night and tried to take off from the scene.

According to the highway patrol, Jeffrey Alan Stern was heading west on State Road 54 in the outside lane just west of Sunlake Boulevard around 6:55 p.m. Dec. 9. As Stern’s 2016 Hyundai Sonata moved west, a Pasco County Sheriff’s Office marked patrol car was stopped with its emergency lights activated.

Troopers say the deputy was out of his car, assisting a motorists with a disabled vehicle on the westbound shoulder at the time. Stern is accused of failing to move over for the cruiser as required by law. Instead, troopers say, his car left the lane, sideswiped the cruiser and then kept going westbound.

The deputy, however, got back into his cruiser and chased Stern down, a highway patrol report said.

Stern was charged with DUI, DUI with property damage and hit-and-run.

No injuries were reported in the crash.

Photo courtesy of the Florida Highway Patrol