As the number of accidents continue to rise, Maryland State Police troopers are asking drivers to look out for them when they're driving down expressways.
Just Sunday, an officer was hit and injured by a driver.
For Trooper First Class Wing Tong -- he's living, and surviving, proof of why he's on a new mission.
"Every time I stop a car, especially on 95, it does remind me of that day, but I gotta do what I gotta do sometimes," Tong said.
That day is one Tong says stays on his mind.
A driver struck him while he was issuing a ticket in July 2015 in Howard County. The accident took a chunk of his leg and left him bloody with a concussion.
"I was pretty much laying down in a ditch. My right leg was pretty much bleeding out," Tong said.
Tong was airlifted to shock trauma where it took nearly a year of surgery and rehab for him to not only get back to work, but to learn how to walk.
He says it's because that driver wasn't obeying the 'move over' law.
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Since the law was introduced in 2010, countless officers have been involved in similar crashes to Tong, including more than 20 this year.
The five-year trooper says that's too much.
"The trooper that got hit on Sunday, he was my classmate and the other trooper, Trooper Klein, she got hit, she was also my classmate," Tong said.
With his classmates serving as his latest example, Tong is warning -- and teaching -- drivers to move over.
"I take a couple of extra minutes to explain it to them, you know, what is the law about and what they should do when they can't move over and just the slowing down part," Tong said.
Parts that could save the life of an officer, or anyone, on this side of the road.
Trooper Tong is only a few months back on the job.
He says the hit didn't intimidate him from wanting to get back to work, because policing is in his blood.
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