HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, NJ (CBS) — Two New Jersey state troopers are out of the hospital after an SUV crashed into their patrol car during a traffic stop. The The crash happened Thursday on Black Horse Pike in Hamilton Township, Atlantic County.
Workers at H. Carlson & Sons say the crash sounded like an explosion. It was caught on camera and workers ran outside trying to help the soldiers and a woman trapped inside their SUV.
“I guess God was on his side,” Harry Carlson said. “I think two seconds earlier, it might not have been the same result.”
Exclusive video shows the terrifying moments an SUV plowed into a New Jersey State Police patrol car.
The two officers were walking outside, making a traffic stop Thursday morning, and seconds later, they were thrown to the ground.
“I noticed one of the officers was laying on the ground,” Carlson said. “I went to him first, but someone was already attending to him.”
Carlson owns H. Carlson & Sons on the Black Horse Pike in Hamilton Township and ran out with his employees.
He says several drivers stopped to help an officer on the ground complaining of shoulder and back pain while the other officer and Carlson went to help the woman trapped inside this blue Ford Escape.
I WILL SEE: @CBSPhiladelphia obtained exclusive video of an SUV crashing into a @NJSP cruise on the Black Horse Pike Thursday in Hamilton Twp. Amazingly, the soldiers survived and are out of the hospital. At 4:00 – hear a good Samaritan say “God was on his side”. pic.twitter.com/d7QcdA2ADt
— Ryan Hughes (@HughesCBS3) April 14, 2023
“She was about four feet away from us,” Carlson said. “It’s not like we could get there and she was just panicking.”
Carlson spoke to the woman and tried to calm her down while his co-worker ran to find something to break the windows with.
“I came in with a big bar and cracked her sunroof,” Carlson said, “and that opened up and allowed air to come into her and that calmed her down at the time.”
Carlson says it took crews an hour to rescue the woman. She was then taken by medical helicopter to the hospital.
The state trooper was also loaded onto a stretcher and taken to an area hospital.
“That’s just in our nature,” Carlson said. “It was the way I was raised.”
Carlson tells CBS News Philadelphia that he wishes he had done more. Now, he hopes this video serves as a reminder to drivers to pay attention and remember New Jersey law to move safely when passing an emergency vehicle.
“People should look at this,” he said, “and see exactly what is happening and can happen.”
The woman who was trapped in her SUV remains in the hospital, state police said Friday.
The crash is still under investigation.
Both officers are expected to be OK.
