A side swiped or totaled car after a driver collides with it along the highway, it's a scary sight for anyone who works along busy roads.
"This vehicle was parked in the center land and somebody wasn't paying attention and collided with our squad car that was parked there," said Lt. Lara Vendola-Messer of the Winnebago County Sheriff's Department.
Accidents like this are something Lt. Vendola-Messer says happen on a regular basis, but it's a problem that's not to be take lightly.
"Clearly he wasn't paying attention as he was able to try to swerve at the last minuted and couldn't swerve in time because he was going too fast," said Lt. Vendola-Messer.
Just down the road at the Winnebago County Highway Department there's a memorial for two workers who were killed on the job.
"It could've been avoided," said highway commissioner, Ernest Winters.
Inattentive driving is something they deal with constantly.
"there's people who use computers, read the paper, apply makeup, shave, Lord knows what they're all doing while they should be just concentrating on driving," said Winters.
The most common distraction however, seems to be cell phones.
"Two or three seconds with your eyes off the road and your attention focused elsewhere is enough to cause an accident," explained Winters.
Highway workers are so desperate for something to be done they're turning to lawmakers for help.
"We're going to probably need to look harder at legislation to try to write laws that keep people from doing these things," said Winters.
