Summary

A 20-year-old Mandeville man has pleaded guilty to causing a wreck that nearly killed a Louisiana State Trooper. The trooper's dashboard camera captured the April 4, 2006, collision on tape, showing Belock's car slam into the trooper at nearly 70 miles-an-hour. Trooper Robert Harrison had just stopped a motorist for a traffic violation along Interstate 10 near Siegen Lane. The trooper was standing outside the vehicle he'd just stopped when Belock's vehicle slammed into him.Andrew D. Belock was sentenced to five years probation after entering guilty pleas on November 13th to first-degree vehicular negligent injury and possession with intent to distribute drugs, prosecutors said. Prosecutors say Trooper Harrison agreed to the sentence of probation so that Belock could remain employed and pay an undisclosed monthly restitution to the trooper. If Belock fails to make those payments, he could then be ordered to prison.In the videotape, Belock is eventually placed in the back of Trooper Harrison's patrol car. At that point, he uses his cell phone to call his girlfriend. Audio equipment within the trooper's patrol car captured what Belock told his girlfriend that night. "I feel asleep," Belock is heard saying. "I was going 70 miles-an-hour and got in a head-on collision, baby. This person might be dead."Trooper Harrison declined our request for an on-camera interview. However, he said he approved of WAFB 9NEWS airing the videotape of his accident in hopes it would remind motorists of the importance of slowing down and pulling into the opposite lane when approaching emergency vehicles.