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At 11:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, Patrolman First Class Sean Roberts stopped a truck on Route 1 south near Raymond Road.
Roberts exited his patrol car and approached the passenger side of the truck. As he was speaking with the truck driver he heard screeching tires and a loud crash, police said.
He went to the rear of the truck and saw a vehicle had struck his patrol car and spun along the driver’s side of the truck. The vehicle a 2015 Volkswagen ended up in the lane of travel facing the wrong way with airbags deployed. Roberts aided the driver and notified dispatch.
An investigation determined that the driver of the Volkswagen, George Eckert, 47, of New Brunswick, had failed to stay in his lane and struck the rear of the 2018 Ford Explorer police vehicle that was on the shoulder of the highway, police said.
There were no injuries in the crash.
Eckert was issued a careless driving summons, police said.
Police Chief Raymond Hayducka said, “We were lucky last night: a patrol car was destroyed but no one is injured."
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