SAN ANTONIO - A year after an alleged drunk driver slammed into him on Interstate 35, Officer Michael Thornton is targeting drunk drivers as part of the DWI Task Force.
Officer Thornton was working overtime Jan. 22 last year and had stopped to help stranded motorists near downton when the driver hit him. He tried to jump over the guardrail to avoid the crash, but he was pinned against his patrol car and lost his right leg below the knee.
News 4 WOAI rode along with Officer Thornton Thursday night as he patrolled Highway 281, Loop 410 and IH-10. Since he's been back on patrol for the last few months, he's seen it all.
"I had a lady who was born in 1939 and I had a guy born in 1991 and everything in between," he said.
His injury hasn't slowed him at all and the excuses drunks give him, just don't work.
"I had a guy the other day and he said, 'you know, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do the test because I've got an old football injury' and I let him tell his little stoy. Then I pulled my pant up and I was like, 'if I can do it, you can do it,'" he said. That man was later arrested for DWI.
Thursday night, Officer Thornton wrote several citations but did not make any arrests. So far this month, he's arrested 8 people for DWI and he has the day off Sunday, the anniversary of his accident.
