Video: Arizona Trooper Blamed After Wrong-Way Driver Slams Into His Vehicle

An attorney representing an allegedly drunk driver—who was going the wrong way down the road before crashing into an Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) sergeant—has claimed the sergeant was to blame.

DPS footage shows a car going the wrong way and slamming into a police vehicle. KSAZ reported the crash took place at about 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 17, and it identified the driver as New Mexico resident Patricia Carvalho.

Carvalho, 32, had her 2-year-old daughter it the back seat of the vehicle at the time of the accident, the report said.

When a DPS trooper tried stopping her after she drove up on a sidewalk, she took off in the wrong direction, heading eastbound on Interstate 40, the report said, citing police.

DPS Sergeant Paul Damgaard spotted the woman speeding toward him and other oncoming traffic. He then used his SUV as a traffic break as Carvalho’s car came at him, according to another motorist’s dash camera.

Carvalho swerved and hit Damgaard’s vehicle head-on.

“The video taken by another motorist, whose life may have been saved by the actions of this heroic sergeant, tells the true story of what happened,” DPS Director Frank Milstead told KSAZ.

The DPS obtained the footage and released it to the public.

“Sadly, it’s a stark reminder of the risks that impaired drivers pose to the public and to our troopers, who selflessly put themselves in harm’s way to stop them,” Milstead continued.

AZCentral reported that Carvalho was indicted on 17 charges, including attempted homicide, aggravated DUI, and endangerment.

She had a suspended license and a blood-alcohol content of four times the legal limit in Arizona, the AZCentral report said.

Carvalho was jailed on a $3 million bond.

US Traffic Deaths Down Overall in 2018

U.S. traffic deaths fell 3.1 percent in the first six months of 2018, according to preliminary figures released in October, Reuters reported. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that 2017 traffic deaths fell by 1.8 percent to 37,133 after traffic deaths rose sharply in the previous two years, according to final figures.

The U.S. traffic fatality rate fell to 1.08 deaths per 100 million miles traveled for the first half of 2018. The fatality rate in 2017 was 1.16 million deaths per 100 million miles traveled—the second highest rate since 2008.

“This is good news and bad news,” said Deborah Hersman, CEO of the National Safety Council, CNBC reported. “The total number of fatalities is not getting worse, but the situation is not getting better.”

Hersman cited distracted driving and higher speed limits for the number.

“There are a number of states that have raised speed limits, some now have stretches at 80 or 85 miles per hour,” she said in the CNBC report. In Texas, for example, she estimated that traffic fatalities jumped 7 percent from 2015 to 2017, in part due to higher speed limits in the state. “We know it’s happening even though distracted driving data is hard to come by,” she said of drivers using smartphones while behind the wheel. “Police reports on accidents often don’t report if the driver was distracted and in many accidents, people don’t self-report themselves.”