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Baltimore Co. Officer Involved In Crash On Beltway's Inner Loop

TOWSON, Md. (WJZ) -- An accident involving a police car and tractor-trailer shut down the Inner Loop of the Beltway for hours Wednesday afternoon.

Adam May explains how the drivers are doing.

The injuries were not  life-threatening, but the wreck made it really tough to get around Baltimore County.

A Baltimore County police officer flew across the Beltway, smashing into a jersey wall after a three-vehicle crash, which also involved a large tractor-trailer and a Jeep.

Detective Cathy Batton says all the drivers are lucky survivors.

"The officer was extricated from the vehicle and flown to Shock Trauma, where he's in stable condition," Batton said.

The accident led to traffic nightmares on the Inner Loop. There was gridlock from the scene at Providence Road to at least three miles west from noon until mid-afternoon.

"I was in there about 45 minutes," said one driver.

The traffic is a mess; they're lined up miles down the Beltway," said another driver.

The accident forced police to shut down some ramps to the highway. It also caused traffic backups off some side streets in the Towson area.

One man just moved to Towson from Michigan and got lost in the detours.

"I had to go all the way west, then come back east," he said.

Police say the accident originated when the police car was merging onto the Beltway, colliding with the tractor-trailer. Who's at fault remains unknown.

Two people in the Jeep were taken to Sinai with minor injuries and two others in the tractor-trailer were not hurt.

Car accidents are the number one cause of death for police officers on duty.

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