A crash involving a Maryland state trooper and a Glen Burnie woman Monday on Interstate 97 sent both parties to the hospital, state police said.
At about 8:30 a.m., Trooper Quinn Dobbins from the Glen Burnie barrack was attempting to intercept an “irate” man who was reportedly following a local women after she cut him off, said 1st Sgt. Russ Newell, spokesman for the Maryland State Police.
Dobbins, who has been a trooper for 11 months, was traveling south on I-97 and attempted to turn around in the emergency vehicle crossover to go north, Newell said. But as he was starting to turn left from the left lane, a Land Rover Discovery traveling behind him broadsided his car, Newell said.
Dobbins was taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center and released later Monday with “bumps and bruises on his side,” Newell said. Dawn Robinson, 44, who was driving the Land Rover, was taken to Baltimore Washington Medical Center and discharged shortly after, a spokeswoman for the hospital said.
The incident is still under investigation, and no charges have been filed, Newell said.
There has been an increased focus on the safety of police drivers since a fatal crash in Baltimore earlier this month, when Officer Anthony A. Byrd was killed after an incident involving another city police officer.
In 2005, there were 435 crashes involving state police reported, Newell said. Officers also traveled about 30 million miles in 2005.
“Anybody whose occupation requires them to be on the roads, you are going to see a spike in involvement [in crashes],” said L. Douglas Ward, deputy director of the Division of Public Safety Leadership at The Johns Hopkins University School of Professional Studies in Business and Education.
Ward said police drivers also increase the probability of a crash when responding to emergencies and using emergency lights, as in the case of Dobbins.
“When you have lights on, people will do strange things ? they don?t always do what they are supposed to do,” Ward said.
Experience can also be a factor in crashes involving newer police officers, since they don?t have as much experience weaving through traffic, Ward said.
“With my personal experience, it seemed that the younger, newer, less-tenured troopers tended to have more of the minor accidents,” he said.
