A Denver police officer was hospitalized with broken bones after his patrol car was struck by a suspected drunken driver shortly after the officer had arrested another suspected drunken driver, police say.
The collision triggered a four-car chain reaction accident on northbound Interstate 25 at 4 a.m. that closed the highway for several hours, Denver police said.
Heidi Jewell, 28, was arrested for investigation of vehicular assault after she crashed into a vehicle driven by the officer.
The officer had already arrested the first drunken driving suspect and was inside his patrol car when the second suspect slammed into the car, police say.
The name of the other suspect, also a woman, has not been released. She received minor injuries and is considered a victim in the traffic accident.
The officer, who has not been identified, was taken to a hospital. Other unidentified people involved in the accident received minor injuries.
The northbound lanes of I-25 were shut down at 20th Street so detectives could investigate the crash, said Mary McIver, Denver police spokeswoman. The lanes reopened around 6:45 a.m. It’s unclear what position the officer’s vehicle was in during the sequence of collisions, McIver said.
This was the second day in a row in which crashes impacted the northbound I-25 commute, this time during the morning drive.
On Thursday, a tractor-trailer clipped three bridges in the early afternoon, turning the highway into a stop-and-go nightmare well into the evening commute.
