A car slammed into a Texas police officer approaching a vehicle he pulled over for a routine traffic stop, according to newly released dashcam footage of the incident.
The car hit Fort Worth police officer Matt Lesell as he approached the driver’s side window of a vehicle on Interstate 30 near Oakland Boulevard, WFAA reported.
The video shows Lesell being launched into the air from the impact after the car slammed into the stopped vehicle. Lesell, who survived the incident, got up a few seconds later and walked to the side of the road to avoid being hit by oncoming traffic.
“Every time I watch [the video], I’m still surprised it was not worse,” Lesell told the Star-Telegram on Monday. “My job is going to accidents and seeing horrific events, and I’ve seen accidents that don’t look nearly that bad, but there were worse injuries. I’m lucky with how it turned out.”
Lesell added that he was able to get up after the accident due to the adrenaline rush that hit his body.
“Your body goes into trauma mode,” he said. “Pain-wise, you don’t feel much. You just know something bad happened and the body does amazing things to limit the pain. All I knew was that I was hit. I kept spitting, and because it was bloody and I didn’t know where it was coming from, I knew it was bad.”
Lesell suffered from a fractured vertebra and a hyperextended foot and expects to be out of work for a month.
Police arrested the driver, Mike Mitchell, 34, for allegedly striking the officer while intoxicated. He was charged with a second-degree felony count of intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury to an officer or first responder.
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