Kaitlyn Alanis
The Wichita Eagle
MCPHERSON, Kan. — A Kansas trooper was nearly struck by another driver while on his way to help with a reported crash, and it was all caught on video.
Trooper Ben Gardner was responding to a two-vehicle crash near the McPherson County rest area on I-135 just before he narrowly avoided the crash, he told The Wichita Eagle in a Twitter message.
Before he got to the crash, a red truck swerved and nearly hit Gardner’s patrol car, the dashcam video shows.
“I just about got taken out moments ago if it wasn’t for driving defensively,” Gardner tweeted at 9:25 a.m. Tuesday. He added the “face screaming in fear” emoji.
The video shows the red truck as it swerved toward the patrol car while Gardner drove his car slightly off the road and onto the dirt to avoid a collision.
“Sometimes it’s not how you drive but it’s how other motorists drive,” Gardner tweeted, along with the hashtag #SlowDown.
Defensive driving is “a set of driving skills that allows you to defend yourself against possible collisions caused by bad drivers, drunk drivers, and poor weather,” according to DriversEd.com. Defensive driving includes being alert, planning “for the unexpected” and being “prepared to react to other drivers,” according to the site.
Gardner told the Eagle that the roads were “very slick” at the time of the near-crash.
The Topeka branch of the National Weather Service tweeted that a “freezing drizzle” has contributed to several crashes in central and north-central Kansas Tuesday morning.
“These conditions will continue to overspread the area through the morning and early afternoon,” the branch tweeted. “Use caution if travel is necessary today and tonight.”
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©2019 The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.)