THE DANGER ZONE

Trooper C.D. Knox considers himself lucky. Twice, he has been working at accidents on the side of the interstate when a car has crashed into his patrol car from behind.

"Luckily, neither time I saw it coming," Knox said. "Luckily, they’ve been passenger cars. I guess I’ve been fortunate." Knox, 28, has seen enough accidents to know how badly it could have gone if he had been hit by a larger vehicle.

The first time he was hit was in 2002, soon after he joined the Highway Patrol. He was waiting for a wrecker to take away a disabled vehicle "in the median area, kind of like this collision the other day." That collision was a Sunday morning crash on Interstate 40 that killed two Greensboro teenagers. The teens were waiting for a tow truck on the highway’s inside shoulder between Rock Creek Dairy and Mount Hope Church roads.

At least five other motorists have been killed this summer while stopped on the side of the road. "This year, it’s just one after the other," Knox said.

LaToya Marquita Simmons, a 23-year-old High Point woman, died when she was struck by a truck just after 1 a.m. Sept. 2. Simmons was helping crash victims on Interstate 40/85, according to the Highway Patrol.

In Elon, four people were killed as they tried to load a broken-down car onto a trailer July 14. As they were working beside the road, an Isuzu sport-utility vehicle ran off the road and hit them. The driver, Robin Michelle Stanfield, 32, of Elon, turned herself in and faces four charges of misdemeanor death by vehicle.

Police and emergency workers are protected by the "Move Over Law" enacted in 2001 and strengthened in 2006. The law stipulates large fines for not changing lanes to make room for emergency vehicles and possible felony charges for injuring emergency workers. But law enforcement officials are well aware that a law on paper doesn’t always protect them.

Troopers B.W. Earles, J.D. Goodnight and Knox have all been struck by vehicles while working. Earles was writing a ticket on I-40 when his patrol car was struck. Goodnight was in front of his car on Wendover Avenue when it was struck from behind. He ended up on the hood of his patrol car.

Knox’s two collisions destroyed two patrol cars and left him with a broken nose and two ruptured disks in his spine. "It’s weird," Knox said. "You see all kinds of collisions. You see how vehicles end up, and you see the damage, but you see the traumatic nature of a collision when you’re in it." Being hit has changed how Knox approaches his work in a way no training video or class could.

"It changes your mind-set a lot," Knox said. "I catch myself looking in the rearview constantly." But what he wishes would change: drivers’ awareness of people working on the side of the road. "There’s signs. It’s in the media. It’s been out there five years now," Knox said. "If it isn’t just good common sense, it’s a law."