Clayton News Daily

By Ed Brock

An Atlanta police officer was badly injured in an accident on I-285.

Officer Dan Tripp, 38-years-old and a 14-year veteran of the APD, was traveling westbound on the I-285 connector around 11:35 a.m. Thursday when the accident occurred, Clayton County police Capt. Jeff Turner said. Tripp was behind a Chevrolet pickup truck that was pulling a flatbed trailer and was driven by a family from Alabama.

As they passed a Dodge Caravan minivan that had been abandoned on the left shoulder of the interstate the trailer on the Chevrolet somehow became entangled with the Caravan.

"The trailer and the minivan were tossed out into traffic," Turner said.

Swerving to avoid the accident, Tripp hit the pickup and then collided with the median wall.

Tripp was in and out of consciousness after the accident and taken by air ambulance to Atlanta Medical Center, Turner said. The father, mother and two children from Alabama who were in the pickup were not injured, Turner said. Turner said he did not know the identity of the pickup passengers.

The Caravan had a company's name stenciled on the side and investigators are trying to contact that company to find out why the minivan had been left there and how far it protruded into the roadway, Turner said. No charges had been filed in the case as of Thursday afternoon.