Two Maryland State Police troopers leaped from the path of a speeding drunken driver while stopping to help a disabled vehicle on Interstate 95 in Prince George’s County, police said.
State police said Trooper First Class Elix Gerber and Trooper Thaddeus Allen — who had just graduated from the police academy last Friday — stopped for a disabled vehicle in a northbound lane of I-95 near Van Dusen Road in Laurel shortly before 1 a.m.
They were placing flares around the stopped vehicle when they saw a Ford Escort speeding toward them, police said. The troopers jumped over the concrete barrier to escape from the vehicle, which slammed into their patrol cars.
The driver, 27-year-old Scott A. Schwartz, of Baltimore, was charged with drunk driving, reckless driving and other offenses. He is being held in the Prince George’s County Detention Center.
Schwartz suffered a cut on his lip but didn’t need medical treatment, police said. The one person in the disabled vehicle refused treatment.
