Hampton woman charged with DUI after hitting trooper's car

HAMPTON

A Virginia state trooper suffered minor injuries Friday morning when a Hampton woman sideswiped his car, police said. She was charged with DUI.

The crash happened at 6:11 a.m. at the intersection of the Hampton Roads Center Parkway and Magruder Boulevard, said Sgt. Michelle Cotten, a spokeswoman for State Police.

Ciara Shavon Palmer, 23, was driving a Dodge Intrepid on a ramp from the parkway onto northbound Magruder Boulevard when she made an unsafe lane change and sideswiped Trooper Steven Bethea's car, Cotten said. Bethea was banged up and bruised and went to a hospital to be checked, she said.

Palmer, of the 100 block of Triple Crown Court, was not injured. She was charged with DUI, making an unsafe lane change and carrying a concealed weapon; she had a knife in her purse, Cotten said.

Patrick Wilson, (757) 446-2957, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com