14th Illinois State Police Car, Trooper Hit This Year

COLLINSVILLE, IL — Illinois State Police District 11 Commander William Guard announced another ISP squad car and officer were hit Wednesday, making it the 14th squad car to be hit in 2019. ISP said one of their troopers was hit while helping in the investigation of a crash that was reported just before 10:30 p.m., involving a vehicle that left the road and hit a light pole on northbound I-55 at mile marker 9.4 in St. Clair County.

Police said the pole ended up falling across traffic lanes and was hit by seven other vehicles before troopers arrived on the scene about 10 minutes later. The first ISP squad car on the scene worked to stop traffic and move cars around the downed pole, police said.

When the third ISP squad car arrived a few minutes later, police said the trooper positioned himself further back from the scene in an effort to slow the oncoming vehicles before they arrived to where the downed pole was. According to police, the trooper was on foot and outside of his marked squad car with the lights activated, when he and the car were hit by a semi-trailer truck.

The trooper was taken by ambulance to a local hospital with serious, but stable injuries.

"What else can we possibly say or do to convince you to move over and slow down for us?" ISP commented on their Facebook post regarding the crash. "The fact that 14 of OUR troopers have been struck in this manner since January 1st is absolutely ridiculous. We lost Trooper Lambert in January and these crashes continue to occur."

This crash involving the trooper comes less than a week after another ISP trooper was treated and released from a local hospital after a Channahon man suspected of drunken driving plowed into their squad car as it was parked along westbound I-80 near Joliet conducting a traffic stop on Sunday night, authorities said.

Patch reported Rodolpho Mejia, 45, of Channahon was arrested on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and given a citation for a violation of Scott's Law. The crash occurred at 6:39 p.m. near Joliet's mile marker 128.

Related: Drunk Channahon Man Hits Illinois State Police Car On I-80: Cops

According to ISP, this crash and the 13 previous ones this year have been results of Scott's Law violations. Scott's Law orders that when approaching any police or other emergency vehicle stopped along the roadway, you must proceed with due caution, change lanes if possible, and reduce your speed.

No additional information will be released at this time, as ISP said their Traffic Crash Reconstruction Unit and Zone 6 Investigations are continuing the investigation into this incident.