PORT TOWNSEND — A State Patrol trooper was able to catch up with the alleged drunk driver who ran over him while he talked with the driver of another vehicle in a bizarre incident New Year’s Eve.

Trooper Eric Ellefson, 25, was treated and released at Jefferson General Hospital for bumps and bruises he received when he was struck by the vehicle and pushed to the ground in front of the vehicle he had stopped.

“I got very lucky,” Ellefson said Thursday about suffering only minor injuries.

The driver of the van that struck Ellefson, Michelle Rugeley Powers, 49, of Port Townsend is being held without bail in the Jefferson County jail for investigation of vehicular assault, hit-and-run, and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Ellefson said he had stopped a vehicle with a defective headlight near Seton Road on state Highway 19, a few miles south of Port Townsend, at about 9:30 p.m..

As Ellefson talked to the driver of the vehicle he realized he was in danger as a van approached.

“It was close to the back of vehicle I had stopped,” Ellefson during a telephone interview Thursday night.

“A split second later it hit me,” Ellefson said.

———————

The rest of the story appears in the Friday Peninsula Daily News.