Body cam video of officer hit by accused drunk driver

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Disturbing body cam video has been released of a Houston police officer as he was hit by an alleged drunk driver. Officer Roshad Carter wasn't only hit by a car on the Newcastle freeway exit ramp by a woman who detectives say was driving drunk, he also survived an incredible fall and it was all caught on camera.

The video is horrendous.  It shows Officer Carter being hit by a car, an accused drunk driver and you hear him screaming in agony as he falls from the Southwest Freeway.

”I'm falling and I just kept thinking to myself when am I going to stop falling,” explains Officer Carter from his hospital bed.  He fell more than 15 feet.  Then his body slammed into the ground below.

”Laying there on the ground, all I could do is just pray that everything was alright because I couldn't feel my arms.  I couldn't feel my legs,” Carter said.

It was 3 a.m. almost three weeks ago when Officer Carter and his partner were investigating an accident on the Newcastle Southwest Freeway exit ramp which was blocked off by their patrol car. The officers say a drunk driver, 25-year-old Bianca Bennett came speeding pass the barricade.

”Through the grace of God protecting over me, I jumped up in an instant as soon as I saw the headlights, I jumped in the air.  The car hit me on my side,” the officer explains.

Bennett is charged with intoxication assault. Officer Carter is left with his back broken in several places.

”He can sit up.  He's in a lot of pain.  His blood pressure goes up because of the pain. He's not paralyzed.  It's just God's grace that he can still do what he can do,” says Officer Carter’s mom Debra Carter.

”There's no excuse for drinking and driving,” says Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo.  The chief is putting out a warning that HPD is now cracking down on drivers who do so under the influence and on the establishment where they received the alcohol.

”We're starting to keep track of when we arrest people where they're coming from,” the chief explains and he says if a number of people driving drunk are coming from a particular restaurant or bar, that owner will be in trouble.

Officer Carter's partner actually has a martial arts background and when he went over the freeway ramp he was able to, unbelievably, roll into a safe landing and is now back to work.