A police officer in Iowa is lucky to be alive today after an allegedly drunk driver rammed his cruiser during a routine traffic stop last week.
According to The Des Moines Register, Officer Anthony Yeager of the Johnston, IA, police department was just finishing up a traffic stop on the evening of April 21 when he noticed a white Ford Focus coming straight for him. Thinking fast, he ran toward the median as the Focus slammed into the back of his cruiser.
"I was lucky enough to see the vehicle coming and got out of the way," Yeager told The Register. "Many people are not lucky enough to react in time or get out of the way. Sometimes they just don't have the fighting chance when they're T-boned at 70 miles per hour by an impaired driver and they're trapped in a car that catches on fire or rolls over."
The driver of the Focus, Julie Ann Steuber, blew 0.155 on a field breathalyzer. Iowa's legal limit is 0.08 percent blood-alcohol content. She was arrested at the scene and charged with operating while intoxicated and failure to yield to an emergency vehicle.
JPD Chief Dennis McDaniel told The Register that he hoped Officer Yeager's dramatic body cam footage of the incident could act as a training tool for officers and as a warning to those tempted to drink and drive.
"As we move forward as a society, this is unacceptable," he said. "This is a pretty dramatic event that shows the real-life dangers that our police officers face and it also is an opportunity for the public to learn that things can happen very quickly and often out of their control."
According to The Des Moines Register, Officer Anthony Yeager of the Johnston, IA, police department was just finishing up a traffic stop on the evening of April 21 when he noticed a white Ford Focus coming straight for him. Thinking fast, he ran toward the median as the Focus slammed into the back of his cruiser.
"I was lucky enough to see the vehicle coming and got out of the way," Yeager told The Register. "Many people are not lucky enough to react in time or get out of the way. Sometimes they just don't have the fighting chance when they're T-boned at 70 miles per hour by an impaired driver and they're trapped in a car that catches on fire or rolls over."
The driver of the Focus, Julie Ann Steuber, blew 0.155 on a field breathalyzer. Iowa's legal limit is 0.08 percent blood-alcohol content. She was arrested at the scene and charged with operating while intoxicated and failure to yield to an emergency vehicle.
JPD Chief Dennis McDaniel told The Register that he hoped Officer Yeager's dramatic body cam footage of the incident could act as a training tool for officers and as a warning to those tempted to drink and drive.
"As we move forward as a society, this is unacceptable," he said. "This is a pretty dramatic event that shows the real-life dangers that our police officers face and it also is an opportunity for the public to learn that things can happen very quickly and often out of their control."
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