Alleged impaired driver rear-ends police cruiser during traffic stop

A disabled New London man crashed the SUV he was driving into the back of a state police cruiser on Interstate 95 in Westbrook Wednesday evening, injuring a trooper, state police said.

The soldier, Sergey Eccles, who is assigned to Troop F, suffered “minor injuries,” police said.

The SUV driver, Alvaro Portillo, 32, of 54 Nob Hill Road, Apt. 2, New London, was charged after the 8:09 p.m. crash in the northbound lanes with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, driving without a license, following too closely and failing to slow for an emergency vehicle.

RELATED:

Eccles, who was driving the cruiser, was conducting a traffic stop at the time of the incident and, according to police, activated the cruiser’s lights and siren and slowed down to pull over a vehicle. Portillo, who was driving a 2014 GMC Terrain, failed to slow down or change lanes as he approached and struck the rear of the cruiser, police said.

Eccles was taken to the Shoreline Clinic at Middlesex Hospital in Westbrook for ‘complaints of pain’. Both vehicles were towed from the scene.

Police said Portillo failed field sobriety tests. He was scheduled to appear in Middletown District Court on Thursday.

___

Visit The Day (New London, Conn.) at www.theday.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.