By Kelsey Givens
One Nevada Highway Patrol trooper is at home resting after he was injured in a two-vehicle accident at the intersection of State Route 372 and Blagg Road Wednesday morning.
The collision occurred when another vehicle reportedly tried to turn in front of the officer’s patrol car.
Trooper Pat Walker was reportedly traveling on State Route 372 when he observed a vehicle passing him that he felt he needed to pull over. The officer turned on his lights and sirens and began to make a u-turn on the highway to follow the other vehicle.
As he was in the process of completing the turn, a white electrical truck pulled out in front of him, colliding with the officer’s patrol car.
Walker suffered non-life threatening injuries in the accident and was transported from the scene to Desert View Hospital to be treated.
He was later released and is now reportedly at home recovering from the accident.
The trooper’s patrol vehicle sustained significant damage in the accident, and appeared to have much of the front end smashed in.
Pahrump Valley Fire Rescue Services, NHP and the Nye County Sheriff’s Office all responded to the scene.
The highway was shut down for quite some time as both NCSO and NHP’s major accident unit from Las Vegas conducted an investigation.
As of Thursday morning the incident was still under investigation and no citations had yet been issued to anyone involved in the incident.
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- Horace Langford Jr. / Pahrump Valley Times – Two police officers chat near the wreckage of a Nevada Highway Patrol car Wednesday that earlier collided with a truck, injuring local Trooper Pat Walker. Walker is said to be recovering.
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- NHP Trooper Pat Walker
This sounds like an unfortunate accident. I hope no citations are issued to either party.
PLEASE, if you were a witness to this accident call the NHP (Nevada Highway Patrol) or NYE County Sheriff’s office to make a report/witness statement. One eye witness has posted the following 3 comments regarding the accident on the Pahrump Valley Times Facebook Page, but she has yet to come forward or contact anyone for an official statement……”I saw it happen in my rear view mirror. The squad car pulled a U turn (he was right behind me before turning on his lights and pulling a U) , the white truck saw that it was clear and pulled out. Of course, it was clear until the squad car made the turn. They hit at an angle.” “I didn’t report it because I knew that others who were closer already had. I was driving in the opposite direction.” “Oh! And the truck is facing that way because when the hit happened, the truck has just pulled out trying to make a right turn. I assume that when it was hit the driver’s control was lost and it continued to turn instead of going straight.”
FACT’S: The commercial truck pulled up to a stop at the intersection on Blagg Rd. & State Hwy 372. One vehicle was in front of them & pulled out onto Hwy 372 with no difficulty (according to the passengers recall). The driver of the commercial vehicle looked left then right (all clear), pulled out of Blagg Rd. intending to cross “over” Hwy 372 (no right turn) to continue on to Blagg Rd. on the opposite side to head for their next job. The passenger had looked down then naturally looked up at the road/intersection for clearance (as most passengers do) as they pulled onto Hwy 372 & the passenger saw the red lights but before he could even make a sound/warning, the commercial truck was hit by the Trooper in the driver’s/left front wheel by the Trooper’s right front fender. After they were hit, the Trooper “then” turned on his siren (according to the passenger) &…. the lack of a “siren’s” comment from the (“rear view mirror witness”) says alot. The commercial truck made it no farther than the area where on his left is a “right turn only” lane which starts right around Comstock Park area & the right turn only is for those turning right onto Blagg Rd. & when hit in the driver’s front tire, the commercial truck was spun around by the Trooper’s vehicle so that the commercial truck ended up partway in the rocks/partway in the roadway, facing Green Valley Grocery & Gas at the corner of Blagg Rd. & Hwy 372 going the opposite direction. The driver did not know what happened or why they were hit because his view was clear before he pulled out to cross St. Hwy 372. Only the passenger saw the red light’s when he happened to glance left at the last second as they were pulling out to “cross” Hwy 372.
INJURIES: Trooper Walker was taken to Desert View Hospital by ambulance & ended up having a “sprained wrist?” Driver of vehicle seems to be ok so far. Passenger has contusion’s/bruised shoulder. That’s it! Thank God injuries were not worse!
I can’t express how important it is for witness’ of auto accidents to stop/stick around/render aide or contact the police to give a statement. Everyone, it is your civic duty to make a report. It could be “you” the next time who doesn’t know how/why the accident happened and all it would take is one witness to clear it all up. If anyone personally knows the “rear view mirror witness” who has not yet reported, please encourage her to make a report/statement. Thank you & God Bless.
Another reason for a traffic circle there.
If you think the accidents are bad there now, put in a traffic roundabout. Imagine going 55 and then bam, round about, people will be crashing right and left. Round abouts belong in Europe where everyone drives econo-deathbox cars that cant go over 55 mph.
The speed limit there is 45, and it would be slower if there were a roundabout there. Also, with a roundabout no none has to sit waiting for an opening (at least not as long) or waiting for a light to change.
no personal bashing. comment removed. PVT
Ya don’t get headons in a roundabout. Besides, you will love them.
Morgman, Believe me when I say, “You don’t want a roundabout or traffic cirlce there”.I am a retired police officer and trained in Fatal/ Serious Accident Investigations and Accident Reconstruction. A roundabout or traffic cirlce there will cause more accidents than we have now. The speed limit will have to be dropped to 25 MPH. To make it work properly. If you have driven on Rt 372 and tried to do the speed limit the crazies will just run you off the road. The crazies do not stop at the stop signs properly either. The stop signs are not properly placed, comstructed properly or even approved the NDOT.
That’s funny … the roundabouts in Missouri worked fantastically. I never saw any accidents. Yes, they are a pain in the a**, but safety first, right?
I have to agree with you, roundabouts, traffic circles, rotaries or whatever they are called where you are from, work well in controlling traffic. Small ones are a problem for older drivers and those who are not familiar with how they work, but for those of us who learned to drive on them, they are much better than traffic lights. Granted, they DO require more real estate to make them work well, but that can be arranged. Getting used to them does take a bit of time, but once they are mastered, they are much better.
First of all there are NO stop signs on hwy. 372. Second, roundabouts work perfectly fine and I would much rather have one of those then have the county pay 1 million dollars for a traffic light.
Why something as extreme as roundabouts? What about just installing traffic lights??? With the amount of traffic on 160 and on 372 traffic lights have been very much needed for a long time!
Simple answer Angel….$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Remember the electricity is interrupted more often here in Pahrump. Having another light to deal with when power goes out requires extra burden on already strained services. One idea I liked a lot when I was browsing around on a DOT site is for the traffic lights to flash red when power is out. I think it said they can do this for up to 2 hours with no power. Not sure if our lights can do that or not.
FYI – The typical person will not stop for the first traffic light that is not lit. Not because
they didn’t see them (that was obvious), but because our brains have been conditioned to not look for something that’s not lit up with red, orange, and green. Or cherry, amber, and pear for those who don’t know their colors very well.
As I said before in the last discussion on round abouts. I have seen driving here in Pahrump that is not Traffic Circle safe. When a person does not heed lights of any color, Turning right where there are no Right turn lanes, not stopping, not yielding, not heeding speed limits etc, etc. The ammount of space needed for a properly sized traffic circle in the area people say they are needed all play into a Pahrump is not ready for a traffic circle scenatio.
With a traffic circle there are no light to pay attention to, there is now worry about a right or left hand turn lane, there is no stop sign to consider, it’s real hard to speed when going in a circle, and one thing Pahrump does have is land.
Driving in traffic circles is just like dancing, whoever makes the first move or is the circle first has priority over the other person……It flows in a counter-clockwise flow…..unless you’re in England (where everything is backwards). Simple to drive, but when you have people driving that are 80+ trying to do it, I guess it may not work for Pahrump…..
@ morgman & Allora. 1. morgman. No light to pay attention to. An accident waiting to happen. 2. Allora. There are rules when traversing a round about or traffic circle. Traffic must yield to any traffic from the left. With the “whoever makes the first move” statement makes you one of the first candidates to cause a wreck.
If Pahrumpians drove by the law it would be no trouble but there is a great number of our citizens that do not heed traffic laws. It can be seen daily by those not heeding something as simple as speed limits, right turn lanes, using hand held devices while driving, people with dogs intheir laps as they drive. I’ve even seen drivers with children in their laps as they are driving. And you expcet a traffic circle to cure the traffic woes that we experience on a daily basis?