Watch as dangerous DUI stop turns into 2nd DUI crash, despite commercial vehicles blocking traffic 

A police officer is recovering after being struck by a DUI driver while investigating a separate DUI driver, all with a commercial vehicle blocking traffic.

The incident happened just after 3 a.m. on June 11th on Interstate 495 in Fairfax County, Virginia. 

According to… the driver of the first car refused to pull over to a safer location, and instead stopped the car straddling two lanes of traffic. The unsafe stop forced two truck drivers to also come to a stop, and one rig can be seen pulled mostly onto the shoulder. The officer can then be seen speaking to the motorist, who was suspected to be on drugs, while standing closest to the lane of flowing traffic. 

A short time later, a Jeep Cherokee crashed into a tractor trailer stopped in a lane of traffic out of frame, which caused a chain reaction, sending the recording patrol car crashing into the stopped car and Trooper C. Aziz. 

Aziz lets out a grunt but quickly jumps back up and radios for help, all captured on video. Both Aziz and the woman in the stopped car, 43-year-old Erica Bernard, sustained only minor injuries in the accident. No information on the truck drivers forced to stop in the incident has been released. 

Bernard was arrested and has been charged with driving under the influence of drugs, obstruction, possession of schedule I or II substance, refusal of a blood/breath test and improperly stopping a vehicle on a highway. The Jeep driver, Joanna Hatch, was also arrested and charged with driving under the influence. Both were taken to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center. 

Watch the dash cam video of the traffic stop and subsequent accident, below.

THIS is what impaired driving does. #VSP Trooper C. Aziz, amazingly, didn't end up w/any broken bones, but she still has a long road to recovery after a DUI driver slammed into the back of her patrol car while she was stopped out w/a DUID driver on I495 in FFX Co. on 6/11/24 . pic.twitter.com/Lfb1fI8awl

— VA State Police (@VSPPIO) June 12, 2024