VIRGINIA TROOPER INJURED WHEN CAR HIT; OTHER MOTORIST CHARGED WITH D.U.I.

For the second time in four months, a Virginia State Police trooper has been seriously injured after being struck by a motorist who has been charged with drunken driving. The wreck, coming just ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl, prompted State Police to issue a warning to all motorists that troopers will be on the roads this weekend, watching for impaired drivers.

Corinne Geller, a State Police spokeswoman, said Trooper Kristopher S. Chapman, 30, remains hospitalized this afternoon after being struck Friday night on Interstate 81 in Southwest Virginia. Just before 11 p.m., Chapman stopped a vehicle heading south on I-81 in Smyth County for a routine traffic stop.

At 11:07 p.m., as the vehicle he had stopped was pulling away, Chapman returned to his police cruiser. Geller said the 2006 Ford Crown Victoria was parked on the right shoulder of the highway, with its blue emergency lights flashing. He had not yet put on his seat belt because he had just gotten back in his vehicle “and was sitting there finishing up his paperwork,” Geller said.

That’s when a Ford F-150 pickup ran into the rear driver's side of the car, Geller said.

The impact threw the trooper’s vehicle across the southbound lanes, and it came to rest on the left shoulder. The pickup also veered across the highway and ran off the left side of the road. It overturned and came to rest upside down in the median. Chapman was flown by the State Police Med-Flight helicopter to the Bristol Regional Medical Center.

“His injuries are severe and he remains in intensive care,” Geller said Saturday evening. Chapman, who is assigned to Smyth County, has been with the State Police for five years, she said. He is married and is the father of two small children, Geller said. The driver of the pickup, identified as Barry Dean Marshall II, 32, of Abingdon, was treated for minor injuries at Smyth County Community Hospital and arrested.

Marshall has been charged with drunken driving. Additional charges are pending, Geller said, as the crash remains under investigation.He was released after posting bail. “This is the second Virginia State Police trooper in four months to be struck and seriously injured by a drunk driver,” State Police Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty, said in a statement. “Impaired drivers put every motorist’s life at risk, including the lives of our public safety professionals.”

On the night of Oct. 30, Senior Trooper Troy H. Smith, 38, was seriously injured in a head-on crash in Lancaster County. His patrol car was parked, with blue lights flashing, behind orange construction barrier barrels at the entrance of the Robert O. Norris Bridge, which was under repair.

An SUV struck two of the barrels and the rammed Smith’s car.

The SUV’s driver, Stephen A. Harrison, 35, of Hudgins, was charged with felony maiming, drunken driving and reckless driving. He faces trial in May.

Smith, a trooper for more than 14 years, spent two months off duty and is still recovering from his injuries. “He returned to light duty in January,” doing administrative work, Geller said, “but he’s not back to full trooper duties yet.”

Flaherty warned that on this Super Bowl weekend, troopers will be out in force statewide, “aggressively looking for impaired drivers.” He also urged motorists to be alert for emergency personnel stopped along roadsides and to give them wide berth.

Since 2002, Virginia law has required motorists to move over a lane or, if unable, to slow down when passing emergency personnel and vehicles stopped along road sides, Flaherty said. “Move over, slow down and help protect those who protect you.”