State Police: DWI Route 80 Driver Hits Trooper's Car In Ridgefield Park

RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J. -- A Garfield driver was intoxicated when his car slammed into a New Jersey State Police trooper's car on the shoulder of Route 80 in Ridgefield Park early Friday, sending three people in all to the hospital with what turned out to be minor injuries, authorities told Daily Voice.

Jerry DeMarco

06/24/2016 3:56 p.m.

The trooper had a tractor-trailer pulled over at milepost 68.5 of the eastbound highway -- with his cruiser's emergency lights on -- when a Toyota Corolla exiting to Route 46 rear-ended it around 7:45 a.m., NJSP Lt. Brian Polite said.

The impact knocked the trooper's vehicle into the rig, he said.

The trooper and the tractor-trailer driver were released from Hackensack University Medical Center after being treated for minor injuries, Polite said.

The Corolla driver, 23-year-old Kevin Ballestas, also was treated at HUMC for minor head and knee pain and released.

State Police charged him with DWI. Summonses and possible additional charges were expected as an investigation continued.

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