North Carolina trooper uses his own car to stop suspected drunk driver

A North Carolina State Highway Patrol trooper is being credited for saving lives by putting his own life on the line to stop a suspected drunk driver from entering an interstate going the wrong way.

North Carolina State Highway Patrol said Trooper Cody Thao used his own patrol car as a barrier to stop the driver who was speeding up an exit ramp the wrong way. The dramatic crash was caught on dashcam video.

Brave trooper.

I’ve done this twice (pulled over a drunk driver), once in Maine and once in South Carolina. And assisted the Massachusetts State Police in apprehending a drunk driver on 128 a few years ago.

My efforts did not result in crashes. Sometimes a drunk driver will simply pull over when you come up behind him with your lights flashing. The trooper in the video did not have that option.

One resulted in a fight, in Maine, in which I ended up putting the driver on the ground, holding him there with my knee on his back until the local constabulary arrived.

My example for this was my dad, a Border Patrol agent, who took no foolishness from anyone. One night, while we were driving from Nogales to Tucson, he pulled over a drunk driver heading toward Nogales. He took his keys, handcuffed him to the steering wheel, and called it in when we reached an accessible phone in Green Valley. Made an impression on his oldest son, me. This was back in the late 50’s or early 60’s. My efforts, while serving as an Immigration Inspector, were in the late 70’s; and eight and 12 years ago. Now that I’m in my 70’s, those type of actions will likely remain in my rear view mirror. And I realize I have been well protected by God and Christ throughout my life. Thank you, Lord.

My oldest son lives in Troy, New York. Thursday morning he called me to tell me that his parked car had been hit, by a hit and run driver. It wasn't just his car either. The perp had started on Route 787 near Albany, and had clipped some cars on that highway, then he got off the Troy exit, came down my son's street, hit my son's car (VW Tiguan) so hard, that it knocked it up onto the sidewalk, and my son's car ended up hitting the car of the girl who lives upstairs from him. The driver then went down another street, and hit other cars there. They caught the guy, and he was obviously drunk.

When my son spoke to the cops that morning, they said someone had been following this person after they hit the first cars on 787, and called it in. The cops said they had him on camera on 787, and on one of the other streets, but that the camera system on my son's street was being updated at that exact moment, and they weren't sure if there was a backup of it. They can match the paint anyway. My son has to take the car into a body shop on Monday to make arrangements to leave it, and he will have to take it to the dealer, because the dashboard is showing all kinds of errors.

I hope the cops will provide more information on the perp who did all the damage. At this point, no one knows if this person even has a license or insurance, or if the car they were using was even theirs. I spoke to my niece's husband later that day, and he asked me if it was a bunch of kids that had stolen the car, and crashed it into the other cars, because that's what's been going on in Rochester, New York, where he works.

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