Alleged Impaired Driver Rear-Ends Conn. Police Cruiser During Stop

An impaired New London man crashed the SUV he was driving into the back of a state police cruiser on Interstate 95 in Westbrook on Wednesday night and injured a trooper, state police said.

The trooper, Sergey Eccles, who is assigned to Troop F, sustained "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 failure to slow down for an emergency vehicle.

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

Eccles was taken to the Middlesex Hospital Shoreline Clinic 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 Thursday in Middletown Superior Court.

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