Posted on 10/19/21
| News Source: WBAL
A 37-year-old Florida man was arrested Monday after traveling down the wrong way on I-95 for eight miles in his tractor-trailer "after fleeing police and endangering the lives of highway workers and motorists in the area," according to the news release.
Around 12:30 p.m. Monday, troopers from the JFK Highway Memorial Barrack responded to the Maryland House Travel Plaza for a reported theft. Once they arrived, police talked to the victim who said his jacket and keys were stolen, which led them to locate the then-suspected Maurice Cooper of Haverhill, Florida.
According to the news release, "personnel from the MDTA Courtesy Patrol Unit who happened to be in the area, advised police of a tractor-trailer exiting the travel plaza on the wrong side. The tractor-trailer was traveling south in the northbound lanes of I-95, driving against traffic."
After approximately three miles, the driver stopped the tractor-trailer on the fast shoulder in an active work zone where several highway workers were conducting roadwork. A trooper exited his vehicle in an effort to make contact with the driver who was endangering the lives of numerous motorists and highway workers, and climbed onto the passenger side step of the tractor-trailer.
Through an open passenger side window, the trooper made several verbal requests for the driver to shift the truck into park and hand over his keys. In response to the trooper’s request, the driver accelerated into the northbound lanes of I-95, again traveling south against northbound traffic.
The trooper continued to yell at the driver to stop, but he refused. As the driver continued to accelerate, the trooper was thrown from the truck onto the highway, suffering minor injuries. The trooper refused medical treatment at the scene.