Police car sideswiped during traffic stop

Published 12:27 pm Saturday, April 26, 2008

A Bainbridge Police officer’s cruiser was sideswiped on Highway 305 just south of Koura Road Monday night, as he was talking to another motorist he had pulled over minutes earlier.

Deputy Chief of Police Mark Duncan said a 78-year-old Bainbridge resident who said she was having trouble seeing and was trying to give space to oncoming traffic, grazed length of the police car and damaged the driver-side mirror. She pulled over immediately and was cited for inattention.

Damage to the police car was estimated at $4,000, though Duncan said the paint scrapes and dents didn’t appear that serious.

Duncan said the officer had followed procedure and “offset parked” behind the vehicle he pulled over so that the cruiser would shield him from traffic while he was outside the car.

“Had the officer not offset parked, he may have been the one that got hit,” he said.