The staff here couldn’t find the police report that goes along with this Dash Cam of the Week, but we bet it’s a doozy. After all, it’s not every day that a trooper gets a truckload of beer dumped on him.
The staff here couldn’t find the police report that goes along with this Dash Cam of the Week, but we bet it’s a doozy. After all, it’s not every day that a trooper gets a truckload of beer dumped on him.
In the video released last week by the Nevada Highway Patrol, we see the officer pull over a car for speeding on I-15 in Las Vegas.
"You guys have anything to drink tonight?" Trooper Travis Smaka asks the vehicle's occupants. If he only knew what was coming next.
Fortunately, he’s developed a sixth sense—or at least a reasonable sense of concern when making a stop on a narrow freeway shoulder—and his alertness pays off here.
"Just as I ask the question, I hear the sound that always gets the hairs on my neck standing up, of brakes locking up," Smaka tells News3LV.
Turns out, a beer truck was cut off by another vehicle swerving suddenly around the parked patrol car—resulting, as Smaka tells it, in “a tidal wave of beer” that soaked his freshly dry-cleaned uniform.
NHP released the video to remind motorists of what can happen when they drive carelessly around semis, and to promote the department’s planned ride-along, placing troopers in big rigs.
The speeding driver? Smaka let him go with a warning, and a beer-bathed interior. (And good luck explaining that beer smell to next cop that pulls him over.)
Kevin has served as editor-in-chief of Trailer/Body Builders magazine since 2017—just the third editor in the magazine’s 60 years. He is also editorial director for Endeavor Business Media’s Commercial Vehicle group, which includes FleetOwner, Bulk Transporter, Refrigerated Transporter,American Trucker, and Fleet Maintenance magazines and websites.
Working from Beaufort, S.C., Kevin has covered trucking and manufacturing for nearly 20 years. His writing and commentary about the trucking industry and, previously, business and government, has been recognized with numerous state, regional, and national journalism awards.
