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March 17, 2011

State trooper barely escapes car crash

Fresh off the battlefield and fresh out of the police academy, Thaddeus Allen survived two tours in Iraq only to narrowly miss getting seriously injured or worse when a suspected drunk driver slammed into his cruiser on I-95.

It was just his third time out in a cruiser. He and his training officer had stopped behind a woman who ran out of gas just north of the Washington Beltway. The driver of a Ford Taurus hit the back of Allen's police car, forcing him and his partner to leap over Jersey wall. The woman wasn't hurt, and the driver of the Taurus was charged with drunk driving.

"We were taught that one of our biggest enemies are the other cars on the road," Allen said this week as he recounted his harrowing tale. "Most people don't move over or pay any attention, especially the drunks."

Read more for on the crash and Allens' reaction, and on how car accidents typically claim more lives of police officers than do gunfire.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Crime elsewhere, Howard County

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About Peter Hermann

Peter Hermann started covering news for The Baltimore Sun in 1990, first in Anne Arundel County and, starting in 1994, reporting on the Baltimore Police Department. In 2001, he was assigned to Jerusalem as the Baltimore Sun's Middle East correspondent. He returned in 2005 as an assistant city editor overseeing crime coverage. In 2008, Peter returned to the beat as a daily reporter and blogger. A recent BBC report featured him in a segment on the harsh realities of covering crime in Baltimore.

Coverage will focus on crime trends, problems in neighborhoods in the city and elsewhere, profiles of victims and police officers and try to offer readers a fresh perspective on one of the most vexing issues facing Baltimore and its future.

Contributing to this blog is Justin Fenton, who joined The Sun in 2005 and has covered the Baltimore City Police Department and the criminal justice system since 2008. His work includes an investigation into Cal Ripken Jr.’s minor league baseball stadium deal with his hometown of Aberdeen, a three-part series chronicling a ruthless con woman, coverage of the killing of five Amish children at a schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pa., and a job swap with a British crime reporter to explore differences in crime-fighting. A special report looking into how city police handle rape cases led to sweeping reforms that changed the way sexual assaults are investigated in Baltimore. He was recognized as the best reporter in Baltimore by the City Paper in 2010 and by Baltimore Magazine in 2011.

Follow @phscoop, @justin_fenton on Twitter