MONROE COUNTY, Ga. — One Monroe County patrol officer is back on the job after a traffic stop turned violent.
Last week, Deputy Dalton Mosely stopped a vehicle without a tag and got inside the car to try to remove the driver.
The man slammed his car into a barrier, with Mosely in it.
According to Lieutenant Jarrad Duncan with the Monroe Sheriff's Office, aside from domestic violence calls, traffic stops are the most dangerous for officers.
Lt. Duncan has been with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office since 1998.
In his 23 years, Duncan says he's noticed that officers are most at risk when responding to domestic violence calls and conducting traffic stops.
"A traffic stop is a temporary detention of a driver operating a motor vehicle. The purposes are for investigating a potential crime or a traffic violation that has occurred," Duncan said.
Duncan says all traffic stops are dangerous because of traffic passing by, but what is the biggest reason?
"You don't know who or what you're dealing with inside of the vehicle as you're approaching them," Duncan said.
Deputy Mosely's experience last Wednesday was an example of that.
"He conducted a traffic stop, the driver of the vehicle came back with warrants in two different counties," said Duncan.
Duncan says Mosely attempted to arrest the driver, who got back in his car.
"The deputy grabbed ahold of him and tried to prevent him from leading him on a high-speed chase," said Duncan.
Duncan says the deputy fell into the car and the driver drove across the interstate and crashed into the median.
Both men were hurt.
"It could've been really bad," Duncan said.
Duncan says officers go through a week-long training at the police academy as well as a 3-month training at their field operations program. They learn how to prevent traffic stop accidents and how to handle them if they do happen.
"While in that training program, they're evaluated every single day on traffic stops," Duncan said.
Duncan says it takes effort from law enforcement and drivers to prevent these dangerous accidents.
"Pay attention to the laws, especially the speeding laws. They're there for a reason," Duncan said.
Lt. Duncan says that Deputy Mosely suffered a minor head injury, but is now OK.