Texas officer loses leg after being struck by suspected intoxicated driver
By: Mark D. Wilson, Austin American-Statesman
SAN MARCOS, Texas — A San Marcos police officer who was critically injured after being hit by a suspected drunken driver on Saturday night lost her leg in the crash but has vowed to return to the force.
Officer Claudia Cormier, a three-year veteran of the department, had been dispatched to a traffic hazard on Interstate 35 just north of the McCarty Lane overpass around 9:40 p.m. Saturday. She arrived at 9:45 p.m., but moments later, police began receiving a flood of calls that an officer had been hurt.
San Marcos Police Chief Chase Stapp said the impact from the vehicle instantly severed Cormier’s leg. Police officers — including Cormier’s husband, a San Marcos cop also on duty that night — rushed to the scene. A nurse from Seton Medical Center Hays who happened to be passing by stopped to help.
