Officer Flashes His Lights After Noticing a Driver on Her Cellphone, Then Quickly Realizes This Is Anything But a Routine Traffic Stop
After an Austin, Texas, police officer drove past a woman talking on her cellphone while driving, he flipped on his flashers and pursued the motorist. But as he approached the driver’s side door in what appeared to be just a routine traffic stop, he soon realized it would be anything but that.
As Officer Dustin Clinkscales walked up from his patrol car, he saw that the woman at the wheel was grasping her throat — she was choking, and had actually been trying to call 911 for help when she got pulled over, but couldn’t talk, KTBC-TV reported.
“Are you OK? You choking?” Clinkscales asked the woman, as his dashcam footage caught him performing the Heimlich maneuver on the driver.
“Did you get it? Did you get it?” Clinkscales asked as the biscuit piece the driver was choking on was forced up out of her throat. The woman fainted right as the episode ended, and the officer caught her just before she hit the pavement.
She was later taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, where her father, Austin Police Department detective Damon Dunn, came to visit her.
“She was very thankful and she was lucky he was there,” Dunn said.
Lt. Robert Hightower called it just another example of what police officers do on a daily basis – not just in Austin, but in cities and towns across the country.
“They step up to the moment. They help save lives. They do the job they need to do whether it is the use of force, or it is saving someone from choking,” Hightower said.