A Miami-Dade police officer was recovering in the hospital Thursday after an early morning collision with an 18-wheeler on the Florida Turnpike.
The crash happened around 2 a.m. in the southbound lanes of the turnpike near the beginning of the Kendall Drive exit ramp.
Food service truck driver Willie Butler said he was "driving along and all of a sudden boom! The police officer smashed right in the back of the truck."
Butler pointed to bent steel and debris.
He said he was driving at about 65 miles per hour - about as fast as the truck will go - when the police cruiser hit him.
Officials at the scene told NBC Miami that rescue crews had to pry the officer out of the cruiser because he was trapped.
Paramedics rushed him to Kendall Regional Hospital, about a mile away.
Miami-Dade police have not released the officer's name or his condition.
