(Updated at 5:00 p.m.) A state trooper has been hospitalized with serious injuries after being struck by a car on westbound I-66 just outside of Arlington this afternoon.
At about 2:00 p.m., according to Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corrine Geller, the trooper was out of his vehicle during a traffic stop just before the exit for I-495 North when a passing car ran off the road. The vehicle struck both stopped cars, Geller said, and the collision sent vehicles into the unprotected trooper.
The trooper and three others were transported to Inova Fairfax Hospital. The trooper suffered serious injuries and “the extent of those injuries are still being assessed,” Geller wrote. The other three have non-life-threatening injuries.
Geller said the crash is still under investigation.
The accident was the second time a state trooper was hit in Northern Virginia in 12 hours; at about 3:30 a.m., an “out-of-control SUV” slammed into Trooper I.J. Dallam Sr. in Prince William County. Dallam has since been treated and released, Geller said.