Trooper’s dashcam captures pursuit & crash of wrong-way driver on Florida interstate
By: -----
Drivers were faced with some scary moments early Sunday along a stretch of interstate in Tampa.
Florida Highway Patrol said an impaired woman led a trooper on a chase after he spotted her driving the wrong way on I-275.
And it was all captured and recorded on the trooper’s dash camera.
Florida Highway Patrol said Margot McDaniels, 43, was behind the wheel of her Kia Sportage shortly before 4 a.m. when a trooper spotted her driving northbound in a southbound lane of I-275.
An FHP report describes how the trooper said he slowed his patrol car and decided to hit the Kia in an effort to stop the wrong-way driver.
Despite the collision, McDaniels kept driving, according to the report.
The trooper followed the Kia and performed two PIT maneuvers as he tried to stop the Kia.
The second proved successful, FHP said.
PIT stands for Precision Immobilization Technique, and is often used by a law enforcement vehicle to stop a fleeing vehicle by striking it and causing it to rotate abruptly.
When the trooper got out of his cruiser, he approached McDaniels’ car, and she handed him a Florida identification card, the report said.
When the trooper placed her in handcuffs, he asked McDaniels if she had been drinking.
According to the report, said answered “yes” and stated she was a bartender and had also been issued a DUI about two weeks earlier.
A Tampa police officer who assisted in Sunday’s incident also found McDaniels in possession of a pill that was identified as oxycodone, the report stated.
McDaniels was booked into the Hillsborough County Jail.
In addition to DUI, she has been charged with possession of a controlled substance, leaving the scene of a crash, fleeing to elude, and driving without a valid license.