State trooper Sean McGarry, 32, suffered a leg injury in a hit-and-accident on the morning of July 4th in Peabody. Police that found shorn-off side-view mirror and scraped flecks of car paint off McGarry’s utility belt said he narrowly escaped death.
Police are searching for the hit-and-run driver who struck McGarry, imploring the public to aid them in their search. It’s been only a month since state police buried Sgt. Douglas Weddleton who was struck and killed by an allegedly drunken driver. Auto-body shops are asked to keep an eye on silver or gray sedans with damages to the passenger side.
McGarry, a newly married, 5-year veteran of the Massachusetts State Police was treated at Union Hospital in Lynn and released. He was protecting another officer who was engaged in questioning a driver pulled over on Route 128 South in Peabody about 2 am on Sunday. In the blink of an eye he was sideswiped in the breakdown lane by a second car, a sedan, that instead of stopping quickly veered onto Route 1 and vanished.
The first driver, Frank J. Imbruglia, 25, of East Boston was pulled over by trooper Joseph Keefe for swerving into the breakdown lane. He was also found driving with a suspended license. Imbruglia was charged with driving with a suspended license, providing a false name to police, committing a marked-lanes violation and having 3 outstanding warrants for his arrest.
State troopers are very vulnerable on the road, especially during holiday weekends. Within 24 hours of this accident, another state police trooper suffered injuries after he was struck in Cambridge while directing traffic after the Fourth of July concert and fireworks display on the Esplanade.
Another state trooper (Weddleton ) was killed last month while working a construction detail on I-95 in Attleboro when he was struck by two vehicles – one that he pulled over that got rear-ended by a second vehicle.
Also, earlier last week a driver with a history of mental illness, Alejandro Serra, 29, of Framingham led the police on a high-speed chase on the Mass. Turnpike, during which he was rammed police cruisers and almost struck down a trooper at a Framingham rest stop, the Boston Herald reported.
We hope that by raising awareness of the hit-and-run accident we will be able to contribute in the fast arrest of the irresponsible driver who injured McGarry, as well as alert the public to be more careful on the road.
State troopers working at all hours of the night on traffic details are especially vulnerable, as the numbers of police casualties can show. We should all drive with full concentration, restrain from cell phone use behind the wheel and intoxicating substances. This will not only help save our life, but also spare another person from injury and death.
