A Baltimore, Maryland, man has been charged with driving under the influence after police say he struck a Montgomery County police officer on the Beltway Tuesday afternoon.
Officer Francis McDonough, a 20-year-veteran of the department, was directing traffic after a multiple-vehicle crash near Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring when he was struck by 58-year-old Reginald Eugene Taylor, police said.
The officer then stopped the car and attempted to remove the driver, who was later arrested for DUI. He was also given a traffic citation for failure to control speed to avoid a collision. Sources told News4 the man's blood alcohol content was .22 -- the legal limit in Maryland is .02.
The officer was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries. He has been released.
The department is reviewing the circumstances of the collision.
The crash happened just a day after a move over for emergency vehicles law was implemented in the state.
"It allows law enforcement officers across the state to have some measure of safety as they are out there preventing tragedies like drunk driving deaths," Prince George's County Deputy Chief Hank Stawinski said.
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This weekend, police will be out in full force as part of an impaired driving effort known as "SPIDRE." They say in the past five years, there have been 856 deaths and roughly 20,000 injuries in crashes involving impaired drivers.
"It serves as a stark reminder not only to law enforcement but to motorists that drunken drivers are out on our roadways and on streets 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," Anne Arundel County Police Chief Kevin Davis said.
