TENNESSEE OFFICER STRUCK BY CAR

A Johnson City police officer was injured Tuesday when he was struck by a car while assisting another motorist whose vehicle was out of gas, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Officer Alex Perry, 25, was helping a driver push an SUV from the intersection of Legion Street, King Springs Road and Milligan Highway so it could roll down the hill to a gas station, according to THP Trooper Ronnie McClure.

Perry was treated at Johnson City Medical Center and released a short time later, according to McClure. “The officer was going south at the stop sign on Legion Street and a vehicle had run out of gas in front of him. He activated his lights, and the driver wanted him to help him push the vehicle through the intersection,” the trooper said.

Perry apparently motioned for traffic at the four-way stop to cease its flow and then assisted the driver with the disabled vehicle get through the intersection. That’s when a vehicle approached the intersection from Kings Springs Road to make a left turn onto Milligan Highway, McClure said. The driver, Elizabeth Whitehead Miller, 72, of 416 Ketron Lane, was unaware Perry had stopped traffic and that the officer was standing in the middle of the road.

“The officer had just finished pushing the vehicle and gravity had taken over. (He) had stopped and turned around. She did not see him, and she clipped him,” McClure said. Perry went over the hood of Miller’s GMC Jimmy, over the right fender and fell onto the road. McClure said Miller stopped immediately.

McClure credited Perry’s excellent physical conditioning as a factor in his level of injury from the collision. “He is in very good physical shape. If he hadn’t been in good shape he would have been hurt very bad,” McClure said.

Miller was charged with failure to show proof of financial responsibility, even though she assured McClure she has auto insurance. “She said she has insurance but by law it’s supposed to be in the vehicle,” the trooper said.

McClure said the investigation is continuing, but from the evidence he has right now, Miller simply did not see Perry.