MHP: 2nd car hit by distracted driver in a week

Another Mississippi Highway Patrol trooper narrowly avoided injury Saturday when his car was hit by an oncoming driver as he aided a stranded motorist. A passenger in the driver's vehicle was seriously injured, and the driver indicated he had been blinded by the sun.

It happened right outside New Albany in Union County, on Mississippi 78. Earlier in the week, an MPH vehicle was hit by a distracted driver in Pike County while troopers worked an accident reconstruction.

Spokesman Sgt. Ray Hall said the trooper in Union County had pulled over to help a woman change a flat tire and was standing by his trunk when the incident occurred.

"He just happened to look back and saw a truck coming towards him — the trooper actually ran out of the way," Hall said. "The driver of the vehicle was actually distracted and drove into the back of his patrol car."

Heather Rachell Shmitz and her son Tick were in the disabled car, and she said the trooper had pulled up behind them, but when he realized that the traffic wasn't slowing down, he moved his patrol car to where it would block the lane for their safety.

"He got out to assist me and he went to the trunk to get another tool and noticed the truck coming fast and not moving over so he went to move out of the way and my son grabbed the officer by the arm and pulled his arm," she said.

Hall said the driver was cited for careless driving and failure to move over. The "Move Over Law" went into effect in 2007. When drivers on multiple-lane roads approach emergency or law enforcement vehicles on the side of the road, they are required to move over at least one lane and if they can't, they're required to slow to a reasonable speed.

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Zwan Landfair, whose brother was driving the truck that hit the trooper's vehicle, and whose son was in that truck, said his brother couldn't see the trooper's car because of the sun. He pointed to other posts on social media where people said the sun was in their eyes as they approached that spot as well.

"According to more than one person driving in that area, the positioning of the trooper's car combined with the angle of the sun did not allow you to see the car until you were right on it," he said.

Landfair's son underwent brain surgery in Memphis overnight Saturday for injuries he sustained in the wreck. The honors student and high school track team member had been accepted into the MOST Scholars program at the University of Mississippi. Landfair said his son is doing better after his surgery, but his family is still understandably frightened.

"He's doing relatively well. He has a skull fracture and had to have emergency surgery but never lost consciousness," he said. "His frontal lobe was damaged, but he is functioning fine right now."

Landfair said his brother told him that he slammed on the brakes because there was an 18-wheeler on the other side of his vehicle.

Schmitz said she talked to Landfair's son to keep him alert while they waited for an ambulance.

"My family is praying for that young man and his family," she said.

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MHP Capt. Johnny Poulos said troopers and other responders on the roads have near misses quite regularly.

"We have minor crashes involving working accidents and traffic stops," he said. "You have people not paying attention and all you hear is the tires squeal, and this person who was texting or distracted in some form or fashion saw the officer there and they slam on their brakes, and that causes a chain reaction, and there are accidents caused by that."

Poulos said traffic stops are dangerous on multiple levels because officers have to be aware of what the people inside the vehicle are doing as well as their surroundings on the road.

"Keep in mind this is two actual accidents we have, but how many close calls do we have every single day?" he said.

Hall said it's not just police, it's firefighters, medical personnel, and road construction crews as well.

"This had the potential to be very tragic. Again, we’ve got to get the message out, people need to be alert," Hall said. "There are workers on the side of the highway, our first responders, our law enforcement every day, in this case trying to aid someone who’s broken down, just doing their duty."

Schmitz said she's very grateful to the trooper who put himself in harm's way to protect her.

"The real hero yesterday should definitely go out to the trooper, because the way I see it, he put his life on the line for us yesterday and he has a family at home himself, but he is doing his job which is to serve and protect," she said. "For that we will never be able to thank him enough for his hard work and dedication as a law enforcement officer."

Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.