LEAP FOR LIFE FHP trooper barely avoids being crushed on I-95
Boynton Beach – If the state trooper had been a second slower, this story could have a very different ending.
Florida Highway Patrol trooper Jeremy Medastin had to jump up onto a concrete barrier wall on Interstate 95 in Boynton Beach to avoid being crushed by a car spinning out of control in the rain Monday evening.
The vehicle hit Medastin’s leg, said Lt.
Alvaro Feola.
“Luckily, the trooper suffered what appears to be a broken ankle but no lifethreatening injuries,” Feola said.
Medastin, 30, of Lantana, was treated and released from Delray Medical Center to recover at home, investigators said.
The dashboard video camera in Medastin’s patrol car recorded the brush with death on the rain-slicked lanes of southbound I-95 just south of Woolbright Road about 6 p.m. on Monday.
He was hit while walking back to his patrol car to fill out the paperwork for an earlier three-vehicle collision at that location, the video showed.
Medastin was on the inside shoulder of the highway when Ian James Carr, 18, of Boca Raton, lost control of his 2011 Toyota Prius.
It hydroplaned on the wet pavement as it merged onto the highway, according to the FHP investigation.
The Prius crossed several lanes, clipped a 2019 Nissan Sentra driven by Stan Blaase, 61, of Indianapolis, and started spinning counterclockwise, the report stated.
Carr’s car hit the 7-foot wall and the trooper’s legs. Medastin could not walk so he clung to the wall until fellow troopers could help him to an ambulance that took him to the hospital, investigators said.
Carr was ticketed for driving too fast. Troopers noted his rear tires were worn down but not enough to merit another ticket, the report said.
FHP supervisors were involved in the crash investigation.