Florida trooper who crashed into drunk driver to save Skyway 10K runners honored at Patriot Awards

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Toni Schuck – a Florida Highway Patrol trooper lauded as a hero after she crashed into a drunk driver barreling in direction of the end line throughout a race on the Skyway Bridge – was honored with the “Back the Blue” award at the Fox Nation Patriot Awards on Friday.

The 26-year veteran was the “last line of defense” earlier than the end line, the place 1000’s of Armed Forces Skyway 10K Race runners gathered after crossing the bridge. She heard a radio transmission saying a driver – later recognized as Kristen Kay Watts, 52, of Sarasota – slammed by the detour barricades and was heading her course at about 100 mph.

“I was the last officer, I knew that, I knew it was me,” Schuck mentioned at a news conference after the March 6 crash. “If it wasn’t me to get her to stop, then who?”

In an interview with Fox News on Friday, Schuck mentioned she’s nonetheless coping with the results of the crash months later. She has been in bodily remedy since March, which can proceed “for the foreseeable future”.

In a video that aired during the ceremony, she mentioned she’s carried her grandmother’s bible along with her on the job, daily for her 26-year profession, and believes it helped her survive the high-speed crash.

“I believe there had to be someone riding with me,” she mentioned, tearing up. “I think I had a guardian angel.”

While accepting the award, Trooper Schuck described how March 6 began out like all morning shift. She was gearing up to go residence when she was thrust into a terrifying scenario, with simply two minutes elapsing between the driver breaking by the barricades and crashing into Schuck’s patrol automotive.

“That’s what law enforcement gets. We get those split-second decisions,” Schuck mentioned. “And then the audience that gets to review our videos have a lifetime to criticize us.”

“What they don’t see is that we’re human and we want to do a job,” she continued. “That job is to protect our community and that’s what I felt I did that day.”

She thanked Floridians and other people throughout the nation for the outpouring of assist the obtained after the crash, particularly from runners’ teams and different officers who had been concerned in crashes on the job.

Now that Trooper Schuck is back on the job, she informed Fox News she hopes to encourage different girls to pursue a profession in legislation enforcement.

“If I can inspire one young woman … I’m hoping the next generation of law enforcement will include a lot more females,” she mentioned. 

Since the crash, Schuck has thrown out the first pitch at the Rays’ opening day recreation. In Manatee County, March 22 was designated “Trooper Toni Schuck Day” in her honor.