Trooper hit by drunk driver while question another drunk driver

Lance Corporal Lee Gillespie, SCHP (Left) and Stephen Spence, offender (Above)



Trooper Hit by Drunk Driver While Making Another DUI Arrest
Suspected drunken driver clips cruiser as patrolman makes public intoxication arrest

By Nita Birmingham (Contact), Noah Haglund (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Saturday, July 26, 2008

A suspected drunken driver clipped the back of a state trooper's car early Friday on Interstate 26 at Spruill Avenue as the officer was arresting another driver for public intoxication, authorities said.

The impact propelled the patrol car into the trooper and the man he was arresting, but both were treated at a local hospital and released. A Charleston County sheriff's report said that Stephen B. Spence, 37, of Summerville, was driving the Nissan Altima that hit the trooper's car. Spence was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence.

The 1:20 a.m. crash happened as Lance Cpl. Lee V. Gillespie was out of his car with the driver of a disabled sport utility vehicle. The blue lights were running on the trooper's car, said Sid Gaulden, director of the Department of Public Safety's Office of Executive Affairs.

Authorities gave this account:

A Mount Pleasant crime scene technician was on her way home when she saw a Ford Explorer stopped partially in traffic in the westbound lane closest to the center retaining wall. A tire had separated from one of the rims. She notified the Highway Patrol, stayed until Gillespie arrived, then left.

Gillespie and the driver of the sport utility vehicle, Bradley Stephen Tamblyn, 36, of Mount Pleasant, were standing in front of the patrol car. Gillespie was in the process of arresting Tamblyn on a charge of public intoxication when the Nissan came from behind and hit the trooper's car.

The trooper's observations of the scene led to Tamblyn's arrest, Gaulden said. Gillespie could not arrest Tamblyn on a charge of DUI because the trooper did not see him driving, he said.

The impact knocked the cruiser into the center retaining wall, then into Gillespie and Tamblyn. Both men were treated at Medical University Hospital. A woman who answered the telephone Friday at Tamblyn's house would not comment.

Spence would not do field sobriety exercises and refused to take a breath test, the Sheriff's Office said. He said he'd had a couple of beers and a container of beer was in the right rear passenger seat of the Nissan, the sheriff's report said.

It was at least the second crash in Charleston County since Wednesday night in which alcohol-related charges were filed. In the earlier incident, a motorcyclist was fatally injured in Mount Pleasant and a woman was charged with felony DUI.

"All I can tell you is my guys are locking up someone every night, sometimes two or three a night," said Lt. Chip Searson, a traffic supervisor with the Charleston Police Department and MADD Charleston County Community Action Site leader. "We're just trying to keep people from killing each other out there."

Police Chief Greg Mullen has rededicated the department's efforts toward DUI enforcement, Searson said. Department arrests for DUI increased 242 percent from 2006 to 2007, he said. Officers made 143 arrests in 2006 and 489 last year.

Gov. Mark Sanford in April signed a new law to toughen the state's DUI penalties and remove enforcement loopholes that Sanford's office said had been used in the past to give defense attorneys an advantage in court.

The bill increases penalties for most first-time offenses and all second and subsequent offenses and removes community service as a sentencing option for second and subsequent offenses.

It also introduces a "tiered" penalty system, with greater punishments for offenders who are grossly intoxicated, and creates tougher penalties for refusing to take blood alcohol tests, Sanford's office said.

The new law takes effect in 2009.

From: http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/jul/26/trooper_driver_hit_on_highway48835/