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TAMPA, Fla. A police officer intentionally veered his SUV into the path of a wrong-way driver to keep him from hitting others on Interstate 275 in Tampa, police and eyewitness accounts say.
Master Patrol Officer Jesse Madsen, 45, and Daniel Joshua Montague, 25, of Golden, Colorado, were killed in the crash early Tuesday morning, Tampa police Chief Brian Dugan said during a Thursday news conference.
Montague was driving more than 100 mph (160 kph) and likely intoxicated, Dugan said. Madsen, who was on patrol, was traveling at about 65 mph (104 kph) when the crash occurred.
“Officer Madsen is a true American hero,” Dugan said. “He deliberately moved his patrol car into the other driver’s path of travel. We believe Jesse Madsen was attempting to stop this wrong-way driver from putting anyone else’s life in danger by laying down his own.”
Tampa officer died stopping speeding, impaired wrong-way driver, chief says
Two fathers died in the collision. Master Patrol Officer Jesse Madsen gave his life trying to stop a wrong-way driver, said the police chief.
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Tampa police Master Patrol Officer Jesse Madsen s patrol SUV lies on its side along Interstate 275 early Tuesday after colliding with a wrong-way driver. The wrong-way driver, Joshua Daniel Montague, was traveling at more than 100 mph at the time of the crash and was likely intoxicated, police Chief Brian Dugan said at a news conference Thursday. [ Spectrum Bay News 9 ]
TAMPA â Their paths crossed suddenly, violently, fatally.
Master Patrol Officer Jesse Madsen was heading north on Interstate 275 in his marked patrol SUV early Tuesday, probably on his way home from work. Joshua Daniel Montague, 25, new in town, got onto the interstate and headed in the wrong direction, police say. They crashed near E Hillsborough Avenue. Both men died on impact.
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