ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. — The head of the Colorado State Patrol says without a bit of luck, one of his troopers may not be alive this week.
Trooper Kevin Bagley had to jump off a bridge toward the South Platte River early Saturday morning, when a suspected drunk driver crashed into his patrol car. Bagley fell about 30 feet toward the ground, but Col. Matthew Packard said he hit soft ground. Bagley was seriously injured, but was released from the hospital this weekend.
“He walked out on his own two feet, which is amazing to me when you see -- you go yourself and you see what he fell into,” Packard said during a Monday news conference.
According to Packard, it took a few seconds for Bagley’s co-responders to realize he wasn’t there. When one of them realized he was missing, they spotted him at the bottom of the bridge and sent help down for him. Bagley was conscious by the time his co-responders got down to him.
Packard said he suffered several major injuries, but wouldn’t elaborate further.
“I will tell you unequivocally, it could have been much, much worse,” he said.
> Watch Monday's news conference, which includes video of the crash that injured Bagley, below:
Bagley has been a trooper for two years and is a second-generation member of CSP.
The driver in the crash that injured Bagley, identified as 30-year-old Cesar Manriquez, was also taken to the hospital with serious injuries. He was released later Saturday and booked into the Adams County Jail on a $75,000 cash-surety bond, jail records show.
Manriquez was arrested on suspicion of the following charges, and additional counts are being considered, according to Packard:
- Vehicular assault with suspected impairment
- Vehicular assault with reckless driving
2 vehicles crash into separate CSP patrol cars, seriously injuring trooper
At Monday’s news conference, Packard railed against impaired drivers in Colorado, saying they account for a third of deadly crashes across the state and nation. Packard said so far in 2023, 12 drivers have hit CSP cruisers parked on the side of the road, a dramatic rise from eight such incidents in all of 2022. Packard said at least three of those crashes were caused by impaired drivers.
“By the grace of God today I’m standing here talking about patrol cars being hit and not people losing their lives on Saturday morning,” Packard said. “This is something that is really, really challenging for me to understand because it is such an obvious choice to just be responsible. Realize it’s someone else’s life, their well-being, that is at stake when you make the selfish decision to drive drunk.”
Packard pointed out both crashes on Saturday morning happened in Adams County, which sees the most DUI crashes every year. He had difficulty pinpointing a reason why.
“It’s not like we’re resource-thin there,” he said. “Uber goes to Adams County, Lyft goes to Adams County. There are taxi cabs in Adams County, and there’s a lot of people. So you can always pick up a friend and there’s a bed nearby you can sleep in. There’s just no excuse.”
Packard said his troopers already have a zero-tolerance policy for drunk driving. He said he’s encouraging troopers to adopt the same zero-tolerance policy for other destructive behaviors, like speeding and reckless driving.
“We got lucky,” he said. “And I’m not willing to rely on luck. So what I need is everybody to lean into this issue.”
He said the high number of road deaths in Colorado last year and this crash this weekend should be a wake-up call to anyone who uses the roads in the state.
“Eventually it’s going to be someone you care about. Eventually it’s going to be your neighbor, your friend, your something. So we all need to lean into this thing," he said.
> Watch the raw video of the crash:
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Latest from 9NEWS