By Don Stacom
The Hartford Courant, Orange

State Trooper Walter Oliveria was injured on I-95 Saturday when a car slammed into his cruiser after he stopped to investigate another crash, but he still managed to rescue a half-conscious woman who was trapped inside a burning sedan, police said.

"This trooper is a hero, no question about it," Lt. Paul Vance said Saturday night.

The woman, the trooper and another driver were taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital with injuries that weren't life threatening, police said.

Police said two cars crashed in the left lane of I-95 shortly before 4 p.m., and Oliveria stopped to get the cars moved onto the median. He parked his 2008 Ford Crown Victoria patrol car behind the crash scene to protect the people, and was standing nearby when a Volkswagen that was driving on the left shoulder to pass stopped traffic hit the rear end of the cruiser.

The cruiser hit the trooper hard enough to throw him against a stopped car and seriously injure his shoulder, police said. The Volkswagen then slammed into one of the vehicles involved in the initial accident, and both caught fire.

The injured trooper managed to get to the VW and use a knife-like tool to cut the driver, 56-year-old Janice Vaillancourt of Old Lyme, loose from her seat belt and pull her to safety, police said.

Oliveria, who is assigned to Troop G in Bridgeport, received the state police Meritorious Service Medal for catching four suspects from a violent home invasion in Norwalk where three people had been stabbed. Oliveria heard a radio description of their car, saw them drive past on I-95 in Stamford and stopped them.