Last Updated on May 9, 2022 by CCAR Staff
A California Highway Patrol officer escaped serious injury when his motorcycle was struck by a suspected drunken driver on Monday, May 9, the Riverside Police Department said.
The officer suffered unspecified moderate injuries and had been released from a hospital by late morning, said Officer Javier Navarro, a CHP spokesman.
The officer was sitting at a red light at Adams Street and Indiana Avenue just before 5 a.m. when he saw a car approaching in his rear-view mirror, Navarro said. The officer maneuvered to his left just before the car struck the right rear of his motorcycle. The officer told paramedics that he was in pain, said Ryan Railsback, a Police Department spokesman.
The driver fled, but officers stopped her car on Lincoln Avenue near Monroe Street, Railsback said. Heather Fernandez Hernandez, 26, was arrested on suspicion of hit and run causing injury and driving under the influence causing injury, Railsback said.
She was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail at Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside, jail records show.
