FORT WORTH PATROL CAR STRUCK; OFFICER OK

A police officer was seated in a patrol car that was struck by another car overnight in far east Fort Worth, but he did not have to go to the hospital, a police spokesman said. The incident happened on a ramp leading from westbound Texas 183, also called the Airport Freeway, to southbound Texas 360, south of Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.

Lt. Dan Draper, the spokesman, said he did not have the exact time of the incident, but he did learn that two officers were working a single-vehicle accident on the ramp when the patrol car was hit. "Another vehicle swerved around the backed up traffic," Draper said.

Witnesses said the driver appeared to have panicked after driving over a line of flairs that were illuminating the roadway, Draper said. The car bounced off a wall and then hit the back of the patrol car, which was parked on the shoulder with its lights activated, Draper said.

A MedStar ambulance crew, which was on scene for the original accident, checked the officer who said he was stiff, but not injured seriously enough to be hospitalized. The patrol car received some damage, Draper said, but not enough to destroy it.

Records did not mention any citations for the driver of the car that hit the patrol unit, Draper said. He added, however, that a potential ticket could have been written for driver inattention.