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A Port Wentworth police officer won a $344,500 verdict Wednesday – nearly three years after a tractor-trailer struck
his patrol car while he was assisting a stranded motorist. Cpl. Greg Long, 36, sued the Iowa-based Heartland Express
trucking company and the Transamerica Insurance Group for injuries sustained in the incident, said Long’s lawyer,
Charles Ashman.
After a 2½ day trial, jurors hearing the case awarded Long $236,000 in damages plus $82,500
in interest, said Ashman of the law firm Ashman, Lasky & Cooper in Savannah. The traffic incident occurred Jan.28,
1992, on Interstate 95 at the Pooler exit after Long spotted an elderly man changing a tire on the shoulder.
Long pulled over to offer the man assistance, parking his police cruiser behind the stranded vehicle. With the blue
emergency lights flashing from his patrol car and the man’s wife and granddaughter watching, Long worked on the tire.
That’s when the 18-wheeler began skidding off the road onto the shoulder. Long managed to knock the two women out of
the truck’s path, but the truck slammed into his patrol car. “Everything was in slow motion,” Long said a month
after the crash. “I could see the cab coming toward us and I figured this is over with.” The careening patrol car
rammed into Long and knocked him on his face. He was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time but received a severe
bruise to his back that has gotten worse since the incident, his lawyer said. The Port Wentworth Police Department
awarded Long a letter of commendation for his actions shortly after the incident occurred.
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