Trooper hit by car after pushing man to safety
The chilling roadside video recorded at a crash scene on I-95 in Hobe Sound shows a Florida Highway Patrol trooper speaking to man – both outside their cars – as a sedan passing through the scene spins out of control.
Trooper Mithil Patel pushes the man out of the way but he is hit by the car and pushed some 4 feet into the air and then thrown to the ground.
Patel, 31, is recovering at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach and was in good condition Monday night, just hours after the harrowing incident.
The man he pushed out the way, Rony Bottex, a 65-year-old grandfather who lives in Port St. Lucie, is on crutches and wearing a knee brace – but is thankful to be alive.
“If it wasn’t for him, I would be gone,” Bottex said of Patel’s actions. “What he did for me, he doesn’t do it because he’s a state trooper, he doesn’t for his job," Bottex said.
"He was there to protect a person he doesn’t know. I don’t believe anybody would do the same."
In the video, Patel is at the scene of a prior crash involving Bottex and another car on the northbound lanes of I-95, right before the impact. The right lane blocked off.
“I heard the car, boom! The car spins, and then he just pushed me away,” Bottex recalled.
Investigators said white van rear ended was a a dark Audi, causing the driver, a 24-year-old man from Wellington, to lose control. Patel pushed Bottex out of the path of the spinning Audi before he is tossed into the air
“That’s amazing, that’s something I’ll never forget,” Bottex said.
He has a message for Patel: “I want to be your family because you’re a good person,” he said. “It’s not what you do, it’s that’s the way you are.”
FHP says this incident could have ended tragically and serves as a sharp reminder for drivers to heed the state’s Move Over Law. It requires motorists passing a crash scene, emergency workers or other roadside barriers to move over one lane or, if that’s not possible, to slow down to 20 mph under the posted speed limit.
WPEC-CBS12 is the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s news partner.