Truck driver charged after hit-and-run on police cruiser on New York State Thruway, troopers say

The New York State Police (NYSP) accused a truck driver of striking a police patrol vehicle on the New York State (NYS) Thruway and then fleeing the scene.

Seth J. Horender, 55, of Little Falls, New York, was charged with multiple vehicle and traffic law violations, including failure to avoid colliding with an emergency vehicle (Move Over Law). He was also issued a citation for an overweight vehicle, NYSP said in a news release.

At approximately 1:00 p.m. on March 25, 2026, an NYSP trooper stopped his patrol vehicle in the right lane of the NYS Thruway at mile marker 273 in the town of Sullivan in order to remove an obstruction from the roadway.

The patrol vehicle’s emergency lights were activated, police said.

Horender approached the scene in a 2022 Peterbilt truck with a dump trailer and “attempted to go around the patrol vehicle by illegally passing onto the right shoulder,” NYSP said.

The Peterbilt truck struck the trooper’s cruiser, but Horender reportedly continued driving east on the NYS Thruway until he was stopped by NYSP approximately twenty miles away from the crash scene.

The trooper was not injured because he “saw the approaching truck and moved to the median.”

“The tractor trailer, registered to Longhorn Trucking Company of Fort Plain, N.Y., was moved to the Thruway Verona tandem lot for inspection by the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit, where damage to the left trailer wheels and rims was identified. The patrol vehicle was towed off scene,” NYSP said.

NYSP said that Horender showed no signs of impairment when field sobriety tests were administered.

“This is the second incident of a trooper being struck on the Thruway in less than two weeks. The New York State Police reminds drivers that New York’s Move Over Law requires motorists to slow down, be alert, and move over when safely possible for all vehicles stopped along the road. In 2025, more than 2,500 tickets were issued for Move Over Law violations along the NYS Thruway,” said state police.