SOUTH BRUNSWICK — A police officer was struck by a car door and dragged about 10 feet after a driver accidentally hit the accelerator instead of the brake to stop her car from rolling away.
Officer George Vit had just completed a traffic stop Tuesday on Route 535, near Middlesex Center Boulevard, when another motorist pulled up behind his patrol car, police said. The woman, a 47-year-old Nanuet, N.Y., woman approached Vit, claiming she smelled something burning inside her car, when the unparked vehicle began to roll.
When she jumped back inside to stop the car, she accidentally pressed the accelerator, striking Vit with the open driver's-side door, Sgt. James Stoddard said in a news release.
The officer was treated for an ankle injury and cleared to return to work, police said. The woman was not charged.
