A highly decorated Virginia state trooper was seriously injured just after midnight Wednesday on I-95 between the Ladysmith and Carmel Church exits.
The wreck occurred after a thunderstorm had caused part of the roadway to be flooded. Trooper A.L. Brenner was directing traffic through a low area near mile marker 108 where high water from Polecat Creek had covered both southbound lanes of I-95.
At about 12:18 a.m., a tractor-trailer driver lost control, striking a police cruiser and a pickup truck, which slammed into Brenner, knocking him over a guardrail and onto the grassy median.
Brenner was taken to VCU Medical Center and is expected to recover from his injuries.
The driver of the tractor-trailer rig, Nicholas J. Coia, 67, of Florida, is charged with reckless driving.
A contract worker who was on the scene to assist with the flooded roadway was the driver of the pickup truck that was struck by Coia’s rig and caromed into Brenner.
Brenner was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 2013 in recognition of his efforts in October 2012 to lift an SUV off fellow trooper Andrew Fox, who was run over while directing traffic on Route 30 during the State Fair of Virginia. Fox died as the result of his injuries.