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Published on Friday, July 12, 2002
in the Herald Tribune
EAST MANATEE -- A state trooper struck by an out-of-control pickup on Interstate 75 on Thursday afternoon prayed for forgiveness of his sins as he lay bleeding in the wet, grassy median north of State Road 70.
Trooper Todd Bergman held the hand of the motorist who hit him and asked the man to tell his children that he loved them.
About 4:30 p.m., Edward Lopez lost control of his pickup and hit Bergman, 32, as he walked along the rain-slick left shoulder of the highway's southbound lanes.
Lopez, 32, said Bergman remained standing until Lopez forced him to lie down.
Lopez said that watching the trooper walk around made him think Bergman would survive.
"I wasn't in fear of his life, but he was in fear of his life," Lopez said.
"There was quite a bit of blood, which made some of the troopers think it was worse than it was," Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Mike Rushing said.
"They were talking to him when paramedics took him away."
Bergman was listed in good condition Thursday evening at Manatee Memorial Hospital in Bradenton. A nursing supervisor said Thursday night that she did not know the extent of his injuries.
Lopez's girlfriend, Dana Phillips, 25, had been driving in front of him and saw him strike the officer. Phillips said she ran to the median and helped Lopez get Bergman to lay down. Phillips bit her lip as she recalled the scene with Bergman.
"He asked us to pray for him, and he was asking God to forgive him his sins," she said.
Lopez said, "He said to tell his kids that he loved them. It was so dramatic, it was unbelievable."
Rushing said that Bergman was responding to a pair of accidents that took place during the afternoon's heavy rains. One involved two cars; in the other a truck had run off the road and into a ditch.
Traffic suddenly slowed as Bergman shouted across the highway to the second accident victim, telling her that a tow truck was on its way.
Phillips said the backup surprised her and she braked suddenly and swerved to the right.
Lopez jammed on his brakes and swerved to the left. He missed the cars ahead, but couldn't avoid the trooper.
"I had a good second to slide and realized there was no way to avoid him," a shaken Lopez said.
After striking Bergman with the pickup's right fender, Lopez continued across the median and clipped a northbound tractor-trailer driven by Gerald Bell.
"When I looked up, he was already halfway across the median," said Bell, 32, who was not hurt. "I didn't even know he had hit the trooper. He had to be hauling butt for him to cross over like that."
Lopez was cited for failure to exercise due care under hazardous conditions, according to FHP Sgt. William Pascoe.
After Lopez struck the trooper and Bell's truck, a fourth accident occurred, involving three cars in the southbound lanes. The quartet of collisions were part of a larger series of accidents that took place along the highway during Thursday's rains, with traffic backed up for miles in both directions.
"Just slow down in the rain," Rushing advised. "Drive defensively and be patient."