HOUSTON – A driver that authorities believe was street racing has been arrested after crashing into a Houston police officer’s SUV on I-10 East Wednesday, authorities said.
Police said it started around 1 a.m. when an 18-wheeler hit a train bridge over the freeway outbound on I-10 and Wayside.
Some large equipment the big rig was carrying fell onto the freeway, police said. While working to clear it, officers shut down several lanes.
“Three vehicles came up at a high rate of speed noticed that traffic was stopped and one of them rear-ended the patrol car,” HPD Sgt. Uribe said.
Police said that crash caused both vehicles to hit a heavy-duty wrecker.
The officer, who was sitting in the patrol SUV, was not seriously hurt. Police arrested the driver.
“I was informed that the driver was racing with the other two cars and right now, the DA has accepted racing charges on him, so he’ll be going to jail right now,” Sgt. Uribe said.
Police said it’s unclear how fast the driver was going when he hit the patrol SUV. The officers performed a field sobriety test on the driver and they say he didn’t show signs of being impaired. The driver is facing a charge of felony street racing.
The freeway was closed for several hours but has since reopened.