Officer suffers broken leg in traffic incident

Car spins out; hits police vehicle pinning officer

By Jill Kuramoto

Published  7:08 PM HST Aug 19, 2012

A Honolulu police officer is recovering after he was injured when he stopped to help a motorist on the side of the road early Sunday morning.

Just before 7:30 a.m., the 29-year-old patrol officer arrived to help the driver of a white pickup truck that had spun out and hit a guard rail on the H-1 Freeway on-ramp from Fort Weaver Road that was slick from rain.

"He went to the trunk of his car to get some of his equipment when the BMW also came along the on-ramp, spun out of control, then slid into the policeman’s white car," said Lt. Bobby Towne of the HPD Traffic Division.

The patrol officer, who is assigned to the Kapolei-Waianae district, was pinned between the cars.

He was treated for a broken leg and transported to the Queen's Medical Center in stable condition.

The driver of the pickup truck was not injured.  Neither was the driver of the BMW, who had not been arrested but was being investigated.

"We’ll look at speed as a possible factor, being this is a 25 mph on-ramp.  We don’t believe any alcohol was involved, but we doing a blood draw at this point," said Towne.

Depending on the results of the test, this could become the first case under the new Move Over bill that the governor signed into law last month.

The Move Over law requires drivers to slow down or move over a lane if possible when approaching a stopped emergency vehicle.

Violation of the law could result in monetary fines or jail, but it's received plenty of attention after two police officers died in traffic accidents within the year.

HPD Traffic investigators said there's only simple advice they can provide motorists following Sunday's collision.

"Drive with caution," said Towne.

Up until last month, Hawaii was the only state in the nation that did not have a Move Over law.